PHOTO: Christopher M. Mortensen

Parking Lot 80 overlooks a nondescript field north of Park Avenue. But decades from now, that field may be the gateway to one of Penn State's star attractions -- a proposed 395-acre natural area called an arboretum.

Sasaki Associates of Watertown, Mass., worked with a Penn State taskforce to develop the arboretum design, which has been incorporated into the University Park Campus Master Plan.

The facility will include a collection of gardens, forests and pathways for environmental studies, conferences or just weekend visits after football games, said Kim Steiner, professor of forest biology and chair of the taskforce.

Although the plans are drawn up, the arboretum will need decades of work and millions of dollars in private donations before it is completed, Steiner said.

"Penn State has been talking about building an arboretum since the teens," Steiner said. "Right now we have the best opportunity ever to make this happen."

-- by Daryl Lang

• Masters of the university
• Green Space
• Hammond Building