While walking to class or meandering around campus, one often overlooks details such as a consistent hedge height, cleanly swept sidewalks and trimmed bushes.
However, for UCLA’s Senior Superintendent of Grounds Richard Ohara, these overlooked details are part of the job.
An experienced landscape architect who has worked at the university for 19 years, Ohara is responsible for the care and maintenance of the 419 acres of land on campus. He also oversees landscaping and design at the William Andrew Clark Memorial Library, near USC, as well as the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden.
To accomplish this task, Ohara walks around the entire campus once a month to look for problems or hazards and also relies on his team of assistant supervisors, grounds keepers, equipment operators and laborers to record damage.
“It’s really difficult to keep this place clean, since it’s an open campus,” Ohara said.
This charge becomes even more difficult when special events are hosted on campus, such as the recent Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards that took place during spring break.
“It caused some quite serious damage,” Ohara said, adding that there was a need to replace sod on the Intramural Field as a result of the event.
Other events that damage the campus grounds include the “I’m Going to College” visitation days, which are part of a community outreach program that stresses the importance of a college education to younger students, as well as the college admit days.
“They generate more trash, and trash hauling is expensive,” Ohara said.
He added that UCLA hauls about 30 tons of trash on a daily basis.
But in terms of preparation for these events, Ohara said that his crews simply follow their daily routines.
“It’s just normal business,” he said. “We just keep the area clean and safe.”
Ohara’s interest in landscape architecture bloomed at an early age. His father was a landscape contractor, and Ohara was expected to assist him with his work when he was young.
“I learned all my landscape knowledge from my dad,” he said.
This early exposure, as well as frustrating experiences with inexperienced landscape designers led to his decision to become a landscape architect.
“I thought that I could do better than the landscape architects I worked with,” Ohara said.
After graduating from the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, with a bachelor’s degree in horticulture and a master’s degree in landscape architecture, Ohara found work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as well as Southern California Edison. In 1990, Ohara decided to apply for the senior superintendent of grounds position at UCLA.
“I just like UCLA,” he said. “I have memories of going to the football games at the Coliseum when I was young.”
Ohara’s co-workers have praised his leadership ability and expertise in landscaping.
“He’s very supportive of us and if we tell him we need something, he’ll evaluate it,” said Miles Kitasato, assistant grounds supervisor.
“He has lots of knowledge and whatever we don’t know, we feel comfortable asking him,” Kitasato added.
Ohara’s major duties change with the seasons. With the advent of spring, he and his crews are currently preparing for the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, which will be hosted on campus April 25-26.
In anticipation of the event that Ohara said causes the most damage, campus maintenance crews will use aeration techniques that involve poking holes in the ground to facilitate the increased storage of water and nutrients in the ground. In addition, hedges will be trimmed and the area in which the festival will be hosted will be cleaned and tidied.
“Some people have never been here before,” he said. “I want to give them a good impression.”
Crews will also be assigned to event duty, as they will be responsible for servicing trash bins, marking sprinkler lines, as well as post-event clean-up, Kitasato said.
This emphasis on cleanliness has not gone unnoticed by prospective students touring the campus.
“It’s definitely nice here for a university, and I’m considering (UCLA) because it’s so nice,” said high school student Darren Cheng, a junior at Sage Hill School in Newport Beach. “Everything is so well-kept, and it’s very organized and tidy.”
Currently, Ohara is working on the plans for the new South Campus Student Center, which will replace the Bombshelter. In addition to a green roof, which will reduce heating and cooling costs, the student center will feature an above-ground garden to showcase various habitats and plant secessions, such as a woodlands environment and a native California plants section.
“It’s one of our better projects,” Ohara said. “We want to focus on sustainability.”