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Explore the Core
UC Hill sits at the heart of Western’s campus, serving as a central hub for movement, gathering, and campus life. Guided by the Open Space Strategy, recent renovations across UC Hill, Kent Walk, and Kent Walk North have reimagined these spaces to prioritize pedestrians and cyclists, with improved pathways, expanded green areas, and inviting places to connect with the outdoors. Construction on UC Hill and its surrounding areas was carried out in phases between 2019 and 2023, reflecting a coordinated effort to create a more connected, accessible, and vibrant campus core.
With many beautiful natural features across campus, visitors are encouraged to explore spaces such as the rain gardens, Pollinator Garden, Western Community Garden, Sherwood Fox Arboretum, and Beryl Ivey Garden.
Rain Gardens
Western’s first naturalized rain garden is located in front of the Physics & Astronomy Building, with a second situated beside the Music Building. These gardens feature low‑maintenance, native, drought‑resistant and salt‑tolerant plants that help absorb rainwater directly into the ground, reducing stormwater runoff from rainfall and snowmelt into campus sewers.
Landscape Services supports ecologically beneficial plantings across campus through thoughtful design practices. Native species are prioritized wherever possible, with plants carefully selected to suit each location. Non‑native species are thoughtfully incorporated where conditions are less suitable for native plants, complementing biodiversity while contributing to Western’s role as an Arboretum.
The Sherwood Fox Arboretum
The Sherwood Fox Arboretum encompasses all the planted trees and shrubs on campus and represents the biodiversity of woody plants hardy in temperate regions. Western is located at the centre of the Carolinian Zone, making our region the richest in biodiversity in all of Canada. As the Sherwood Fox Arboretum presents a larger range of trees than can be found in parks or nurseries, it has an important role in public education and scientific research. Many of the trees on campus are labeled for easy identification. Dr. W. Sherwood Fox had been hired to teach the Classics Department in 1917. In 1919, he was appointed Dean of Arts and Science; he was inaugurated as President in 1928 with a celebration that jointly recognized Western's Golden Jubilee.
The Sherwood Fox Arboretum was established in 1981 by Dr. George Connell, then President of Western, who appointed Dr. J.B. Phipps as the Arboretum's first Director. The memorialization of Sherwood Fox is a logical one; he was an inveterate botanist, adding numerous specimens to the Herbarium which he collected during personal and professional trips to many places. In his Reminiscences, he noted that the abundance of tulip trees in Southwestern Ontario helped lure him to Western's Classics Department in 1917. The fundamental objective of the Sherwood Fox Arboretum is to have growing on campus as many as possible of the several thousand kinds of trees and shrubs that can survive in this climate.
Check out the Western University Tree Dashboard for an interactive tour to explore and identify the native, donated, and commemorated trees across Western's campus.
The Beryl Ivey Garden
