Temple University’s recently took home a gold medal and won five awards at the 2024 Philadelphia Flower Show held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center from March 2-10. The university’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture’s Landscape Architecture and Horticulture programs “advance innovation and excellence through hands-on learning and research, incorporating field-based classes facilitated by Temple’s 187-acre Ambler Arboretum and Campus.

At the 2024 Philadelphia Flower Show, Temple’s exhibit titled Piers, Progress and Processes: Charting a Course for a More Bountiful Future explored the history of Pennsport and charted a course toward a future designed to reconnect the neighborhood with the waterway that has been so integral to its history.

“We chose the oldest neighborhood in the entire city drawing attention to the environmental issues — tides and rising river levels — while also recognizing the history of the area. We took the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s theme, United By Flowers, and interpreted it as uniting the neighborhoods back with the river,” said Landscape Architecture Associate Professor Michael LoFurno. “The river is why Philadelphia is even here — the city wouldn’t exist without the river. I think we achieved what we set out to do — give people food for thought.”

“I was approached by several people on the judging panels and they personally conveyed to me how impressed they were in our exhibit and that it touched on so many important tissues of the day, getting visitors to think about what they can do in their in their own lives to protect the environment” said LoFurno, who guided the students through the project with Landscape Architecture Instructor and Temple alumnus Anthony Zachornacki. “On a design level, several well-known designers and landscape architects said how well integrated the design elements were in our interpretation of this waterfront neighborhood.”

The awards won by Temple University were:

• Conservation under 1,000 square feet
• The Alfred M. Campbell Memorial Trophy: For the educational major exhibit that demonstrates the most successful use of a variety of plants in a unique fashion
• Pennsylvania Landscape & Nursery Association Trophy: Showing the most effective use of plants and best use of design in the landscape category
• The Bulkeley Medal of The Garden Club of America: The exhibit of exceptional educational merit increases the knowledge and awareness of the viewing public. The exhibit best combines an important message with the ability to convey it to the public
• PHS Gardening for the Greater Good: For the exhibit that best exemplifies PHS’s mission to activate horticulture and gardening as a force for the “greater good” by advancing the health and well-being of people and their environments.

You can read more about Temple’s success at the show here and here.

Photo: Temple University