Angular blocks of off-white and gray are interspersed among the trees and sometimes cast a harsh, hot glare. Generations of students and local residents have passed under the stately palms and massive fig trees, mahoganies, oaks and black olives. After Andrew, the campus arbor-scene is being refreshed with transplants. Many people don't care for off-white buildings but these are standard on many university campuses grown during the 1960's. The green of grass and trees is one of my favorite colors, but there are other colors for the color-bland campus.
Color can bring parts of a campus to life.
I think the main problem is a failure to include flower gardens on the UM campus. I don't know the history of this omission, but there are no flower gardens. Many campuses are colorful at times of the year because of flower gardens. The gardens on the Berkeley campus of the University of California accent the hills above San Francisco Bay and guide visitors and staff to the main entrance of buildings. At The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, untamed, sprawling gardens are a microcosm of the wild Mediterranean plant communities that grow in fields between the Holy City and Tel Aviv on the Sea.