Savageau Courtyard at Cruess Hall

We are proud to add the Savageau Courtyard at Cruess Hall to the network of gardens in the UC Davis GATEways Project. Completed in 2022, the courtyard was developed through a collaboration between the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden and faculty from the Departments of Design as well as Cinema and Digital Media—the academic residents of Cruess Hall.

Once an ordinary landscape and parking lot, the area has been transformed into a vibrant outdoor classroom, exhibition space, and makerspace where sustainability, art, and education converge. Designed as an extension of the classroom, it offers students and faculty a place to experiment, create, and share their work with the broader campus community. A large blank wall serves as a canvas for visual media projections, while the flexible layout accommodates an ever-changing rotation of installations, performances, and events like the popular Picnic Day fashion show.

Completed and ongoing projects include:

Upcycled Furniture – Discarded campus chairs and tables revitalized through sandblasting, powder-coating, and reassembly.
Street Sign Tables – Surplus signage repurposed into functional and artistic surfaces.
Living Sink Project – A graduate student-led system that filters water using aquatic plants in a closed-loop cycle.
Terra Cotta Cooling Towers – 3D-printed, kiln-fired structures demonstrating the natural cooling power of wet terra cotta.
Adobe Brick Making – An exploration of traditional techniques and sustainable building materials.

The garden design was led by Learning by Leading™ interns in the Sustainable Horticulture program, who focused on geometry, texture, and climate adaptability. Their work included building a decomposed granite teaching patio and thoughtfully selecting bold, sculptural, low-water plants that provide year-round interest, support pollinator habitat, and—importantly for design students—include species traditionally used for natural textile dyeing. The result is a striking, climate-resilient landscape that enriches both the aesthetic and educational experience of the courtyard.

A Legacy of Creativity and Environmental Responsibility

The courtyard honors the memory of Mark Edward Savageau, Patrick Daniel Savageau, and Elisa Marie Savageau by their loving parents, Professor Emerita Ann Savageau, a leader in sustainable design and creative reuse, and Dr. Michael Savageau, a pioneering systems biologist. Their shared dedication to education, innovation, and environmental responsibility has influenced generations of students and continues through the Ann Savageau Leadership Award, an endowed fund that supports an outstanding undergraduate leadership apprentice to facilitate maintenance and community engagement in the Savageau Courtyard.