Campus Planning and Grounds

The Barnes Arboretum at Saint Joseph’s University is a 12-acre arboretum home to more than 2,500 taxa of woody and herbaceous plants. The peony, lilac, and fern collections, which date from the early 1900s, are important genetic resources for conservation and study, and an herbarium contains more than 10,000 specimens that supplement teaching and research. The Arboretum is located at 50 Lapsley Lane, Merion, PA 19066. 

Learn more about the Arboretum and plan your visit using this link.

The work of the SJU Community Garden lies at the intersection of sustainability and social justice by providing an intentional and reflective space for the SJU community to come together and promote the Jesuit ideals of appreciation of things both great and small, community engagement, and commitment to service and the environment. All food and herbs grown in the organic, raised-bed garden are donated to local community partners.

To learn more about the SJU Community Garden, visit their website.

The green roofs covering the John and Maryanne Hennings Post Learning Commons and the Science Center are highly engineered systems of growing medium and drought-tolerant plant species that reduce stormwater runoff, provide habitat for wildlife, extend the life of the roof itself and reduce heating and cooling costs for the buildings. Green roofs (more appropriately referred to as vegetative roofs) may either be intensive, looking more like a garden with trees, shrubs and flowering plants in containers, or, like ours, extensive, with wide areas of the roof covered in grass or succulent plant material that can quickly take up large amounts of rainwater and survive long periods of drought.

In addition to green roofs on the PLC and Science Center at Hawk Hill, the IPEX building in University City is home to a green roof containing 20,000 square feet of vegetation.