Introducing Allen Centennial Garden (s)

Allen Centennial Gardens is now officially known as the Allen Centennial Garden (singular) – and it’s just as sweet. A request to change the name was recently approved by the Chancellor’s office.

Garden director Ben Futa kindly shared with eCALS some of the reasoning behind the shift:

The change came about as a result of our strategic planning process and our desire to make the Garden a stronger component of the campus community and student experience. While we’re made up of many special gardens (plural), we are one organization, one entity, one identity – the Garden (singular).

The Garden is the sum of many excellent parts and implies a cohesive vision and that we speak with one voice. It also helps us to brand our physical place. “Are you heading to the Garden? Have you been to the Garden lately?”

Another point to mention: We’ve generated a new marketing catchphrase through this process: “Uniquely UW-Simply Beautiful.” We want to emphasize the Garden as a critical part of the UW-student experience. We’re something you can’t get from an online class. We’re a reason to choose the UW-Madison campus experience.

Originally published in ecals@cals.wisc.edu January 11, 2016