Cuyamaca College - Ornamental Horticulture
Entrance Courtyard Design Competition

The Results Are In.

First, I want to thank all of you that participated in the Courtyard Design Competition Presentations held in the OH Classroom on Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2008.  To the judges, Gerald Fisher and Steve Jacobs and our faculty, Kathryn Fulhorst, Steve Copley and Nick DeLorenzo who all generously donated their time (till after 11 p.m.) and to the students who were brave enough to make their presentations to a room full of design students, five landscape architects and a landscape contractor, kudos for all you hard work and professionalism in your presentations.  Your presentations exhibited well thought out plans, creativity, and hard work. I believe the opportunity to have your plans reviewed by such an outstanding group provided feedback few students at any institution ever receive.

At the conclusion of the presentations, the judges along with our faculty met to select a winning design.  The process was difficult as we found elements in many of the designs that would be desirable in a final plan.  But after serious consideration, the winning design was submitted by Sylke Portner-Clark. 

However, the judges and faculty decided they did not want some of the other design elements to be lost, so Gerald Fisher and Nick DeLorenzo have volunteered to work with Sylke to refine her plan and add some of the other designers’ elements into the final plan. To recognize these contributions, it was decided to add a second plaque (or add to the original plaque) the names of all that presented last night as “Participating Contributors.”  This will be installed in the courtyard during the renovation project as recognition of the efforts of all the talented students that contributed to this, our first design competition.

Sylke Portner-Clark and her winning design