CSU Buildings and Grounds History

Annual Trial Gardens, 2004

From CSU's Sense of Place:  A Campus History of Colorado's Land-Grant University, by James E. Hansen, Gordon A. Hazard, and Linda M. Meyer.  Fort Collins, CO:  Colorado State University, 2018.

Architects – Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Bath Landscape Design Company (2016 Perennial Flower Garden)

Builders - Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Sinnett Builders of Fort Collins (renovation of the Gazebo they originally built for Fort Collins High School in the 1980s), Bath Landscape Design Company (2016 Perennial Flower Garden)

1401 Remington Street

Following the purchase of the old Fort Collins High School property, the small park just west of the main building was turned into space where hundreds of flowering plants are grown each year. It is visited by residents to view the spectacular variety of flowers grown there each season. A landmark feature is the large gazebo originally built in the 1980s.  It is listed as one of the top twenty college gardens in the country.

During the summer of 2000, a pedestrian/bicycle tunnel connecting the Flower Trial Garden and the Main Campus was installed under South College Avenue. This became the model for larger pedestrian/bicycle underpass tunnels installed under West Prospect Road and South Shields Street years later. 

The objective of the Flower Trial Garden is to evaluate the performance of annual and perennial flower varieties under Rocky Mountain environmental conditions. In 2015, 805 different varieties of plants were being evaluated by the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture faculty and students. Over the years, the size of the gardens has expanded to lawn areas on the west side of the University Center for the Arts main building.

In the summer and fall of 2016, the lawn area on the north side of the University Center for the Arts was converted into the new location for the “University Perennial Flower Trial Garden”.  Bath Landscape Design Company helped design and build the new portion of the garden complex that was once located at the W. D. Holley PERC on West Lake Street on land that is now used by the on-campus stadium and its football practice fields.