When President and Mrs. Boren came to campus in 1994, they began working closely with landscapers and donors to carry out a vision that has helped OU become known as one of the most beautiful campuses in the nation.
Allen King has played a personal role in transforming the campus according to the Borens’ goals for OU’s beautification.
King, the director of OU landscaping and grounds, has been part of the landscape department for over 30 years and was recently named the 2018 recipient of the Otis Sullivant award, which is presented to an OU community member who exhibits "keen perceptivity," according to a press release. King is finishing up his time at OU and will retire on June 30, the same day President Boren will. King said he has seen the before and after differences since the Borens took office.
“When they came here, they had a vision,” King said. “I was out here one Sunday with my dog, watering plants, and here they come up the South Oval just like commonfolk, and we sat there and chatted, and they started telling me what they were thinking about doing with the campus and the vision they had, and I’m thinking, ‘Wow, what possibilities.’”
The Borens made King a supervisor about a month later, and King said the opportunity to work closely with them and carry out their vision is what led him to stay for so long. The transformation he has helped oversee has since led OU to be named among the 25 most beautiful campuses nationwide.
"Creating a place of beauty in which to work draws out of all of us our best product, and it encourages higher standards," Boren said in an email. "It is very important for creating a first impression in attracting students, faculty, and staff."
The Borens’ vision included the street tree project and the bench program, King said. The oak trees that line OU’s streets are the result of the street tree project, which added over 20,000 trees to the university’s three campuses.
The bench program the Borens initiated gives people the opportunity to pay for a bench and have it dedicated to someone. More than 350 benches and approximately 20 fountains and sculptures have been added to campus since the Borens took office.
Another part of the new vision was the addition of picnic tables for students to get away from their classrooms and spend time outside while studying, King said. This mindset inspired the creation of courtyards in campus buildings built in the past couple decades, King said.
“It’s been fun to try and create a whole new sense to the landscape,” King said.
Boren said in an email that one of the most important results from the landscape transformation is that students have been able to take ownership of their campus through programs such as Arbor Day, where students and faculty come together to plant trees, and Adopt-An-Area, a program committed to keeping campus trash-free.
These new projects and many of the flower beds on campus, including those on the South Oval, were made possible through donors the Borens found, King said. The donors' endowments help make sure that, even when times are difficult for the university’s budget, the campus can still be maintained.
"I’m grateful for Mrs. Boren's dedication to creating a beautiful, inviting campus for the OU family," Boren said in an email.
Boren also said he has faith that King's staff will continue to uphold the high standards he has set.
"Allen King and his staff have done a wonderful job and have taken incredible pride in the fact that they have built one of the top 25 most beautiful campuses in America," President Boren said in an email. "He will be sorely missed."
For the landscapers who do the day-to-day work, it means a lot when students, faculty and staff let them know their appreciation, said OU gardener Brey Martin.
“They come out and tell me things are looking good or something they might want to see happen in the area,” Martin said. “It makes me feel good that they come out and actually notice the good things that we’re doing, and some constructive criticism is always nice.”
For Angel Mejia, landscaping specialist, 26 years with OU’s landscaping and grounds team has given him the chance to do his favorite thing: make the campus beautiful for students.
Just in the past week, Mejia’s team has planted 15,000 red dianthuses in the South Oval flower beds endowed by the Pittman family, Mejia said. They’ve also added about 6,000 tulips around campus that Mejia said he hopes will last until Mother’s Day.
“Planting, taking care of the plants, taking care of the flower beds to taking care of the turf to pruning plants, working with roses, flowers ... it’s my favorite thing to do,” Mejia said.
Mejia even said that, sometimes, students want to help out when they see the landscapers at work. He said his team gives them gloves and puts them to work, and that he has lots of photos with groups of students from all over the world.
“A lot of them, they’re really nice, and that’s why we’re here, to make it pretty for y’all, for the students,” Mejia said.
King said that he does have worries about whether President-designate James Gallogly, who will succeed Boren beginning July 1, will continue the Borens’ landscape legacy. The landscaping program has come so far, winning multiple awards for top landscaping in the nation, and he wants to see it continue to get better, King said.
Boren said he knows Gallogly cares about the beauty of the campus, just as many of OU's graduates do.
“I mean, if you don’t see (a university's) campus and say, ‘Wow’, you’re thinking, ‘Oh, this must be an average educational institution,’” King said. “We want to make the first impression say, ‘Hey, this is it.’ That’s what we want.”
