FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Construction crews have started work on an improvement project on the north side of McIlroy Avenue where it borders the Greek Theatre. As a first step, parking areas along the sidewalks have been blocked off and about two dozen juniper trees were removed.

Artist's renderings of McIlroy Avenue after improvements.

The project was developed by the facilities management planning group in 2005 and was approved by the campus landscape and grounds committee before landscape architects and engineers were hired.

The juniper trees were removed because they encroached on the sidewalk along McIlroy Avenue and did not fit the original landscaping of the Greek Theatre. The trees will be replaced with skyrocket oaks, each with a minimum 5-inch trunk. These are a type of English oak with a uniformly narrow shape, suitable for narrow street plantings. The leaves are dark green and turn to yellow brown in the fall.

“The columnar shape was selected based on our research into historic photographs and drawings for the Greek Theatre,” said Jill Anthes, campus planner. “The trees were originally Lombardy Poplars, which have numerous problems that led us to choose a different, yet similarly-shaped, species. We are very concerned with respecting the heritage of our campus landscape and we take the stewardship of campus trees and landscapes very seriously. We have planted over 3,500 trees on campus since the early 1990s, and we carefully consider any decision to remove any trees.” 

An artist’s rendering of the project, and what the new trees will look like, can be found at http://www3.uark.edu/PHPL/Planning/campus_planning/content/mcilroyavenue.pdf. The rendering includes future buildings, fences and pavement that are not part of the current project.

The main goals of the improvement project are to realign the street so that it forms a true arc around the Greek Theatre, with consistent width; and to widen the sidewalks to accommodate pedestrians and the Senior Walk for classes from 2008 to 2011. The on-street parking spaces will be restored when the project is finished.