The Garden Conservancy Criticizes UCLA’s Decision to Sell Garden

The Garden Conservancy, a New-York based landscape preservation group, recently criticized UCLA’s plans to alter and sell the school’s Hannah Carter Japanese Garden. The preservationists claim the Garden is a historically significant design and are asking others for help keep the Garden intact. The Conservancy urged UCLA to preserve the site after the school removed centuries old artifacts from the Garden.

UCLA announced late last year that it intended to put the Garden on the market with the hope of generating around $4.2 million for endowments and professorships. UCLA claimed the annual operating costs of $120,000 for maintenance, $19,000 for staffing, and $90,000 for deferred maintenance contributed to the decision to sell the Garden.

See Preservationists Decry Alteration, Sale of UCLA Japanese Garden, L.A. at Home, Jan. 18, 2012.

Special thanks to Bruce S. Johnson (Thomas J. and Mary E. Heck and Leo H. Faust memorial Designated Professor of Law, Mortiz College of Law, Ohio State University) for bringing this article to my attention.