Across campus, Wofford utilizes efficient fixtures, from motion-sensor lights to auto-flush toilets and bottle-filling stations to controlled thermostats.
We recently installed our third EV charging station. The super-fast Duke Energy Park and Plug is one of the first such facilities in the Upstate. It can charge a car in as little as 15 minutes.
The Chandler Center for Environmental Studies, opened in 2020, has received three Green Globes for its sustainable design. It features exposed mast timber construction, controlled external lighting and passive solar climate control, with cantilevered construction creating shade. Such elements not only help the building be more efficient, but also create a warmer feel for students, faculty and staff. Externally, Shou Sugi Ban burning creates a natural seal for the walls, and solar panels line parts of the roof. The native plants growing in Chandler’s rooftop garden work in tandem with a rain barrel irrigation system to limit stormwater runoff. The building also shelters a courtyard garden where classes grow crops as part of our food system curriculum. Students, staff and faculty tend a demonstration garden as well as their own small plots.
The Goodall Environmental Studies Center, on the banks of Lawson’s Fork Creek, is LEED Platinum Certified. It was the first educational building in South Carolina to receive this recognition. The site was previously the headquarters of a local textile mill but was renovated and reopened for education in 2010. It has a classroom, a library and two laboratories. During the construction process, over three-quarters of construction waste, from concrete to tree mulch, was recycled. With low-flow toilets and a reflective roof, it uses two-thirds the energy it would otherwise, and about half the energy of other buildings its size. Outside, it has a vegetable garden, a poetry garden, a vineyard and a community-built earthen oven.
The beautiful 190-acre Wofford College campus is an arboretum. The purposeful design is to calm and soothe the soul. The welcoming campus cultivates numerous varieties of plant material that are educational and are both aesthetically and horticulturally inspiring. The design incorporates sustainable practices to control erosion and water runoff. The extensive tree canopy intercepts rainfall and releases the water slowly.
The campus has been very fortunate to have Roger Milliken (October 24, 1915 – December 30, 2010) to move to Spartanburg from New York in 1954 and become a Wofford Board member.
For 55 years, Milliken made numerous contributions that included planning and bringing landscape experts onto the campus. Milliken was influenced by his godmother, (also his mother’s best friend) Beatrix Farrand (1872-1959). She was one of the founding 11 members of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Her campus design influence captured Milliken’s eye on the campus of Princeton University and Yale University. It was Farrand who influenced the use of placing plant material close to buildings on Wofford’s campus. Milliken preferred the buildings be painted white to showcase the evergreen plant material.
When Farrand died in 1959, Harvard named their forysythia selection “Beatrix Farrand.” This plant is the right side of the entrance to the admissions parking lot, as well as the back of the Snyder Building.
In 2008, Milliken was named Wofford’s first and, thus far, only trustee emeritus. The school also named its nationally recognized arboretum after him that year. There are two Milliken Arboretums in Spartanburg. One on Wofford’s campus and another on the campus of Milliken & Company. Every year on Milliken’s birthday (October 24), Wofford plants a new tree on campus in his memory.
Milliken was able to bring Dr. Mike Dirr, one of the world’s top horticulturists to the campus, first in 1989. Dirr has made numerous consulting visits to the Wofford campus during the past 35 years. He continues to be a friend to the college, contributing plants and plant collections. Wofford has five trees on campus that he has introduced.
Dirr has donated a Hydrangea collection (41 plants) on the campus, planted just west of the Synder Building.
| 1 | Dichroa febrifuga op / Blue Evergreen Hydrangea |
| 1 | Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Bloomstruck’ op / Bloomstruck Hydrangea |
| 8 | Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Summer Crush’ op / Red Largeleaf Hydrangea |
| 2 | Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Ami Pasquier’ op / Ami Pasquier Hydrangea |
| 2 | Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Cherry Explosion’ op / Largeleaf Hydrangea |
| 2 | Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Deep Purple’ op / Largeleaf Hydrangea |
| 2 | Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Deep Purple’ x ‘Summer Crush’ con / Largeleaf Hydrangea |
| 1 | Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Dooley’ x ‘Purple Eye’ x ‘SC’ con / Largeleaf Hydrangea |
| 1 | Hydrangea macrophylla ‘FW’ x ‘LNR’ x ‘BS’ x ‘Iowa’ op / Largeleaf Hydrangea |
| 2 | Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Lady in Red’ op / Largeleaf Hydrangea |
| 1 | Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Lady In Red’ op / Lady In Red Hydrangea |
| 1 | Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Lilacina’ op / Largeleaf Hydrangea |
| 3 | Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Rock & Roll’ op / Largeleaf Hydrangea |
| 1 | Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Summer Crush’ op Heritage / Largeleaf Hydrangea |
| 1 | Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Summer Crush’ x ‘Blowing Rock’ c / Largeleaf Hydrangea |
| 1 | Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Summer Crush’ x ‘Irish Lace’ Con / Largeleaf Hydrangea |
| 2 | Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Tuff Stuff ah-ha’ op / Largeleaf Hydrangea |
| 1 | Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Twist & Shout’ Hertage op / Largeleaf Hydrangea |
| 1 | Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Twist & Shout’ op / Largeleaf Hydrangea |
| 1 | Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Twist & Shout’ v ‘Iowa’ / Largeleaf Hydrangea |
| 1 | Hydrangea serrata ‘Mountain Mania’ op / Hydrangea |
| 5 | Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Twist & Shout’ op / Largeleaf Hydrangea |
Wofford also has four shrubs planted on the campus that Dirr has introduced are not hydrangeas:
| 1 | Cinnamon Girl Disylium / Distylium myricoides x racemosum ‘Cinnamon Girl’ |
| 2 | Vintage Jade Distylium / Distylium x ‘Vintage Jade’ |
| 3 | Crimson Fire Loropetalum / Loropetalum chinense ‘Crimson Fire’ |
| 4 | Ruby Loropetalum / Loropetalum chinense ‘Ruby’ |
In 2023, Dirr donated a Penstemon collection (beardtongues). This plant species is the largest genus of flowering plants endemic to North America. These plants were planted together (as a “pod”) to see what open pollination will create.
Also, in 2023, Dirr donated (15) Platycrater arguta / Tea-of-Heaven that he grew from seed to the Wellness Center located in the newly renovated Blackwell-Quattlebaum Center for Wellness and Counseling Services in the Hugh R. Black House (planted on the east side).
Dirr and Stewart Winslow, Wofford’s director of horticulture and landscape design, planted trees from all over on the campus of Milliken & Company and Wofford College since 1989. One upright oak from the Milliken campus has been named ‘Milliken’ and now two ‘Milliken’ oaks have been planted on Wofford’s campus. Many different species of oaks and maples comprise the majority of the canopy at Wofford.
Evergreens serve as windbreaks around the buildings. There are over 20 different magnolias on campus. Early blooming trees magnolia stellate and x soulangeana. Later blooming species are selections of magnolia virginiana and magnolia grandiflora. Dr. Kevin Parris of the Spartanburg Community College Horticulture program, whose daughter is a Wofford graduate, has provided many new tree magnolia selections to the campus.
One of the newer selections is Riveting Rosie Magnolia. The full story from Parris:
The late Dennis Ledvina of Green Bay, Wisconsin, first performed the breakthrough cross of M. sieboldii x insignis in 2008 or earlier, using insignis pollen sent from Dick Figlar. 2010-2014 Kevin handled the harvesting and sent Dennis insignis pollen from both the South Carolina Botanical Garden and the Figlar accessions.
Sadly, Dennis lost a rapid battle with stomach cancer in 2015.
Riveting Rosie originated from seed that Dennis mailed to Kevin in appreciation for providing the pollen. Kevin successfully repeated the cross in 2014 and 2016.
From those 2010-2014 crops, Kevin raised, several specimens have been planted on the SCC campus, at his home and family members’ homes, and plants were donated to places like SCBG, Riverbanks, Moore Farms, JCRA, ABG, ABG-G and people like @jenksfarmer and Dr. Dirr, who became enamored with it.
In fact, it was Dr Dirr who introduced it as Riveting Rosie.
Thanks to Parris for being the middleman between two heroes in the world of horticulture!
The college has been composting for 35 years! The leaves, limbs and any tree work debris are tub-ground and then composted on site. This prevents a tremendous amount from going to the landfill. The compost is used on the campus for landscape projects.
A push for pollinators to be planted on the Wofford Campus.
This includes the landscape bed on the east side of the Office of Marketing and Communications, the Mungo Student Center, Daniel Building, Chandler Center for Environmental Studies, the Roger Milliken Science and the Snyder House. The number of hummingbirds seen on campus has dramatically increased, particularly with the bee balm and salvia plantings.
In many areas, the turfgrass square footage has been reduced by planting groundcovers. Best horticultural practices are used to grow the turfgrass, including organic fertilizer. The campus has historically experienced a lot of soil erosion. Now, the turf absorbs rainwater runoff. The turf is mowed at a very high height to grow a deeper root system and to prevent weeds, pests and disease. Soil tests are performed annually to maintain a healthy lawn.
Integrated pest management is practiced on the campus, including the placement of green lacewing eggs, praying mantis cases and the release of ladybugs.
The Chandler building incorporated rainwater harvesting and has a beautiful green roof. There is also a community vegetable garden that includes three varieties of blueberries.