WCC’s ‘Green’ Building Gets Native-Plant Landscaping

By Patrick Hennessey, Westchester Community College

The Divney Tung Schwalbe planning, engineering and landscape architecture firm chose Westchester Community College as the site of its annual “do-it-in-a-day” volunteer landscaping project.

The partners in the firm along with the company’s employees recently designed and planted a garden at the entrance of the college’s Gateway Center on the main campus in Valhalla. They planted a variety of native plants donated by a member of the Westchester Community College Foundation Board.  

The Gateway Center, designed by the internationally recognized Ennead Architectural firm, is the first county-owned “green” building. 

Gateway received LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification. Ecology and sustainability were central to the design, from the building’s overall siting and massing strategies to the integration of energy efficient systems and selection of materials.

Divney Tung Schwalbe partner Jerry Schwalbe, an alumnus of the college, is a licensed civil engineer with more than thirty years experience in site engineering, municipal infrastructure design, and project management and development. He supervised the garden project in coordination with members of the college’s Physical Plant Department and the college’s Native Plant Center.

“This was truly a labor of love,” says Schwalbe. “It was very special for me to be able to give something back to the institution that provided the educational foundation for my career," he says.

The Native Plant Center was established by the Westchester Community College Foundation on the grounds of the college in 1998 to educate individuals on the importance of native plants of the Northeast. 

As the first national affiliate of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas, The Native Plant Center builds on the work begun by the former First Lady to promote the use of native plants. 

The Center maintains demonstration gardens and educates the public about the environmental necessity, economic value, and natural beauty of native plants through conferences, lectures, field trips, classes, and its Go Native U certificate program.

“This space was truly transformed by the crew at Divney Tung Schwalbe,” says Carol Capobianco, the director of the college’s Native Plant Center. “Their attention to detail, extraordinary design skills, and just plain hard work made this project happen. Now we have a native garden showcase at the entrance to this building, which is an architectural jewel,” she says.  

Divney Tung Schwalbe, which was founded in 1972, is a team of land use professionals who help clients to envision and achieve successful and responsible development projects. The company serves a wide range of private and public clients throughout the New York Tri-State Region and beyond—from corporate headquarters and institutional facilities to residential communities, historic properties, and recreational sites.