Celebrating Memorial Hall’s 100th birthday, the UD Grounds Department recently completed the installation of two new gardens on the building’s south side, utilizing proceeds from the Diffenback Endowment. Additional landscape renovations are scheduled to be completed on the North side of Memorial Hall this summer. 

Another familiar UD landmark, Magnolia Circle, will be updated as well over this summer.

It has been 105 years since Marian Coffin, one of the nation’s first female landscape architects, designed The Green. This iconic landscape design on the University of Delaware campus links what once was the Men’s College and the Women’s College of Delaware. Magnolia Circle, in various forms, has remained a central part of this composition.

Magnolia Circle in its current location and form occurred in 2005 with the construction of the fountain and the planting of magnolia trees and shrubs.

“The trustees noted at the time that the landscape would be refurbished to a level in keeping with the design intent and style of Marian Coffin, original landscape designer of the University Green. The addition of the fountain feature was hoped to invite greater use of the space,” said University archivist Lisa Gensel.

Its re-design, completed by Josh Twardowski, a registered landscape architect and grounds manager for UD, honors the intent of the original design. The existing magnolia trees will remain and missing ones replaced, the north and south vistas of The Green will be restored, and the circular gardens will again bloom with flowering shrubs and perennials each spring and fall.

“Landscapes and gardens are living entities and need frequent renewal to remain both useful and vibrant," Twardowski said. “Plants have a life expectancy and as they die, or the use of the space changes, we need to re-invest in these landscapes to maintain the sense of place that we know as the UD campus.”