I started teaching in the Horticulture Department at Merritt College in Oakland in 1976. I was the youngest teacher at the college at the time (30). The administration came up with $2 million to build a new horticulture facility to replace the portable buildings and they told me to work with the architects in the design of the new buildings. They said “use the money wisely because we will never get any more”.

Somehow they did come up with more money almost 50 years later and they tore the old buildings down and built a whole new Horticulture Center. This facility cost $27 million and has all the modern technology that the horticulture industry has created in the past 50 years.

As I was visiting last week the architect was doing the final punch list to complete the project and I was amazed at the beautiful facility that Peralta Community College District now owns.

Here are a few photos of the facility so you can see where your tax dollars are going:

Main entrance

Classroom can hold 50 students and many other students can be enrolled in the on-line Zoom in the same class.

Drafting lab for design classes.

Classroom and tables for floral design classes.

Classroom and tables for propagation, irrigation, construction classes.

Greenhouses, mist houses for propagation and growing.

Lab and setup room.

Office and library

Courtyard

Restrooms

A road goes around the facility so deliveries are easy. Notice the grass growing in the paving blocks.

Planting beds for lab work.

Pathways and planting areas.

View area of San Francisco and Oakland.