A COLUMN FOR POLLINATORS
A COLUMN FOR POLLINATORS
Less pavement. More prairie.
A Prairie with Nine Rooms—currently under construction on Ohio State’s main campus—pilots low-cost, low-maintenance ways of turning asphalt sites into species-rich spaces for human and more-than-human communities.
Aerial detail, first growing season, July 2025.
Over forty species of prairie plants make up the community of species on site. The bosques contain a curation of high-canopy and low-canopy drought tolerant trees, including Imperial honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos 'Impcole'), American hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana), and White bud (Cercis canadensis 'Alba').
Mid-construction, first growing season, July 2025.
Four eighteen-foot wide swathes of prairie plants carve an unloved half-acre asphalt site into nine rooms: four gravel bosques, three corner rooms with charred wood seating and sculpture, and two spaces holding experimental planters filled with excavated asphalt, soil, and ruderal plant species.