•| The Sharing the Gardens blog supports an on-going conversations between Pacifica’s master land manager Marshall Chrostowski and alumni who enjoy the beauty and intention found in Pacifica’s spectacular campus grounds. |•
First Look : Foundation Fountain
Notes on the new Foundation Fountain at Pacifica’s Lambert Campus | Marshall Chrostowski
| originally posted on 25 Apr 2012
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The Foundation Fountain’s setting reclaims buried boulders and features native flora. Inspired by a graduating cohort that approached Marshall to establish a women’s grotto on campus with enclosed moving waters, Foundation Fountain became part of Marshall’s vision to connect Pacifica’s two campuses through sustainable land use. Pacifica’s Lambert Campus, located below the hillside Ladera Campus, hosts its own water sanctuary, Source Fountain, that carries its own story and symbolism. Designed to face and complete each other, Foundation Fountain and Source Fountain recognize connections between the two campuses of Pacifica Graduate Institute.
video transcript
≥ please watch @ First Look: Foundation Fountain
00:00
| The Lambert Campus was the original site for the Pacifica Graduate institute. And so this was, basically, the foundation of the institution. And so I’m going to persist in calling it Foundation Fountain, because that’s what I designed.
00:20
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It’s facing the mountains that supply… The Chumash had a village over here, and probably here as well, on either side of the creek. Toro Canyon used to come down Lambert Road, essentially. At some time in colonial era, during a big flood, it plugged up the channel and moved over to the other side of the polo field.
00:45
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You can sit here and watch the sun rise.
00:53
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I knew where I wanted to put it because this is to me a really important oak tree. This one, we lost that in 2005 or ’06.
01:05
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These rocks were originally excavated when they were building Fleischmann’s Hall. And they were hauled out and they were tossed into the original creek. And I knew about it because we started to dig this one out, that little point. And we got down, we kept going down, we got to about here, and realized that we weren’t even beginning to get to the bottom of this rock! [chuckles]
01:32
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Well, actually, I put down “one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.” I numbered them with paint.
01:39 |
The largest rock is number one. There’s number two. [indicating progression of groups rocks] There’s number three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight.
01:51 | I walked around and looked at them, looked at them, and I made judgments: what should be the top end, what should be the bottom. So I put a ‘T’ on one end, on one side, and ‘B’ at the other one.
02:02 |
Here we planted native orchids, native strawberry, along the whole route as it goes along. This is going to work out pretty well.
02:12 | The trees over there are about the same age as this, maybe a little older. It would suggest to me that they…happened about 1900. Roughly.
02:23 | This is what true sustainability is. This is not recycling cups. It’s not bringing recycled material in just for the sake of not using resources. Sustainability is the proper management of the land, which returns everything back to the land that you extract from it. So in the course of construction you’re going to end up with lots of material, all of which has some kind of use, either immediately or subsequently.
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•| COMMENTS |•
Collected here, with posting dates, are observations made in the “Comments” section included with the original appearance of this article at the initial website of Pacifica Graduate Institute Alumni Association. Please feel welcome to offer additional notes in the current “Comments” function.
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Pacifica Graduate Institute Alumni Association | 25 Apr 12
This is such a beatuful video. Marshall is a goldmine of useful information and stories about the Pacifica campuses and surrounding areas.
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Wendy Overend | Fielding Graduate University | 4 May 12
So wonderful to take time out of our busy lives to acknowledge, recognize, and appreciate our extraordinary members of the Pacifica family who engage here on our campuses. Yesterday, we celebrated our resident organic farmer, horticulturalist, and grotto creator, Marshall Chrostowski, as he celebrates his 75th birthday and his 25-plus years as the landscape designer of our beautiful, sustainable, and greener than green lush campuses. It was moving, emotional, and pure-souled-Pacifica – full of ritual, blessings, and song! To listen to the mindfulness of this teddy-bear-Santa-Grandpa-man who walks among us, loves the earth, and does his work here with a sacred reverence, we are so lucky to have him in our midst. It was a beautiful event. Thank you.
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Marshall Chrostowski | 6 May 12
Thank you, Wendy. It was a wonderful event and still remains an honor to serve the Pacifica community.
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Sherrie Sims Allen | 25 Apr 12
Pacifica Graduate Institute is committed to offering sustainability solutions in support of bringing mindfulness to the finite systems that are becoming depleted in our environment. Marshall Chrostowski, Land Manager, at PGI is a leader in the field of conservation and sustainability! Bravo!
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Marshall Chrostowski | 12 May 12
The dedication of the Grotto and Foundation Fountain was attended by many staff, faculty, alumni and friends (and my family). Many thanks to those that attended and especially to President Carol Pearson for her humorous and appropriate remarks about the four elements as relating to the new landscape features. My special thanks to Chancellor Aizenstat for using his opportunity to outline my years of service to Pacifica and the community at large. Very moving…then we ended the dedication ritual by passing by the fountain and depositing small stones held and cherished during the ceremony. Each stone has been embued with the energy and moisture of each participant, just as other stones were deposited two years ago in Ladera’s Source Fountain. I completed the merging of waters by exchanging waters from the two fountains, thus linking the two campuses physically and spiritually.
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Judy Favour Sims | 30 Apr 12
A beautiful example of sustainable solutions in working with the land. Please let me know when the dedication will happen, as I’d like to join, if possible. Congratulations, Marshall, on this beautiful project. Sharing your vision and process is very meaningful and gives a powerful message that’s needed in today’s world.
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Marshall Chrostowski | 1 May 12
Judy, I keep trying to post a reply without much success. Strange. I’ll email you directly.
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Marshall Chrostowski | 1 May 12
Hi again, many thanks for all that YOU do for the hort., educ. and sustainability communities. I hope you can come but you would have to be brought and picked up because there is no parking available on campus for the event. Starts at 4 on Thursday afternoon.
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