The culmination of a year-long Texas Tech landscape architecture design project aimed at improving neighborhood drainage and frontage was highlighted this month by a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the entrance to the Oakmont Estates neighborhood in southwest Lubbock.

“This was a good demonstration of engaged scholarship in which outreach occurs as a two-way street” said Daniel Phillips, an assistant professor within Tech’s Department of Landscape Architecture. “Community partners reach out to our department for advice and expertise, and we collaboratively develop designs that impact local stakeholders.” 

Last year the Department of Landscape Architecture’s Green Infrastructure Landscape Laboratory began a long-term consulting and design project for Oakmont residents. Working with the community’s neighborhood association, Phillips along with Professor Eric Bernard and Instructor Jared Horsford led graduate students Zahid Hasan,Fariha Tasnim and Moyin Akinbobola in developing a resilient landscape strategy for the frontage/drainage area of the neighborhood. Prior to the Texas Tech project, the area was largely unplanted and subject to erosion under extreme rain events.

The plan called for a new gabion retaining walls, along with a series of mature tree/shrub plantings and lighting designs to boost community identity and provide a sense of arrival from the perspective along 114th Street and Slide Road. The installation was carried out by Lubbock’s Dreamscapes Turf & Landscape.  

“Projects like this, that benefit our local community while connecting students to real-world stakeholders are the hallmark of the Department of Landscape Architecture at TTU,” said Leehu Loon, chair of Tech’s Department of Landscape Architecture. “Additionally, this project shows the community that there are other successful options for streetscape design in the City of Lubbock.” 

Phillips, a nationally recognized landscape designer and urban ecologist, joined the Texas Tech faculty in 2020. The California native research broadly focuses on areas of experimental green infrastructure and informal urban greenspaces. His doctorate in landscape architecture is from the University of Michigan.

CONTACT: Leehu Loon, Chair and Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, Texas Tech University at (806) 834-5215 or Leehu.Loon@ttu.edu

0514NM24