Visit the Dell and sit a spell

Storm water management for the new John Paul Jones arena has created a bonus upstream at the Dell — plants, a pond and new stone walls with seating. More than 1,000 feet of Meadow Creek, which has been channeled through pipes for decades, is being brought back to the surface.

The landscape plan for the area will make it a mini-arboretum, with plants representing Virginia’s three regions. The coastal zone will have plants like native iris and bald cypress, the piedmont will include sycamores and paw paws, and the mountain zone will feature mountain laurel, St. John’s wort, viburnums and perhaps even a little-known small tree called the Eastern Wahoo.

Kennon Williams (Political and Social Thought, Studio Art ’86, Master of Landscape Architecture ’96), project manager and designer at Nelson Byrd Woltz, said the south and east sides of the plan are in geometric alignment with the Lawn, as is Memorial Gymnasium. The principal in charge of the project is Warren T. Byrd Jr., a member of the University’s landscape architecture faculty.

Richard Laurance, project director for the arena, believes the Dell will become a must-see area for visitors to the University for its beauty as well as the state-of-art biofilter system for the water that passes through it.  “I think you’ll find that it’s a treasured spot, a point of interest, at the University.  It’s a beautiful walking path, around the Dell.  It’s very peaceful.”