Our Department of Campus Planning & Operations will continue to be very busy in the post-season as we delve into preparations for the winter and work on projects for the 2027 Season.  

Our fantastic Gardens & Grounds team is continuing our intensive work on tree maintenance and removals following our evaluations completed in the spring and summer months. There have already been several tree removals and major trimmings to improve tree canopy safety and enhance remaining tree health. 

Some notable trees have been and will be removed due to poor health and damage from squirrels and insects, including two trees from Bestor Plaza at the corner of Ames and Pratt avenues, a large tree in front of the Hall of Philosophy, a large old English Oak located in the small grass island near the bus stop in the parking lot by Bestor Plaza at the intersection of Morris and Ames avenues, and a large maple located behind the Amphitheater at Simpson Avenue. 

Various other compromised trees will be trimmed or removed around the grounds throughout the fall as we work toward maintaining our forest. We are also developing a plan to update our Tree Evaluation and Maintenance Survey, hopefully starting in 2027. At the same time, 49 new donor trees are currently being planted! Special thanks for all the incredibly hard work, time and contributions put in by the Bird, Tree & Garden Club on all things natural and beautiful across the grounds in collaboration with our Gardens & Grounds staff!  

We are also in the process of putting our gardens to bed for the winter months by clearing out excess vegetation and growth, deadheading and cutting back various plantings to allow healthy growth in the spring and summer.  We continue to collect and save native seeds to perpetuate our Chautauqua garden heritage. As many of you experienced, we worked toward launching Monarch butterflies on their migration in August. In fact, our Master Gardener, Betsy Burgeson, presented to a group of garden clubs in New Jersey at their regional meeting, enlightening more than 70 people about monarch waystations. She also toured their incredible greenhouse and discussed a collaboration of plantings for Chautauqua Institution in the near future.  

In addition to the extensive tree work and gardening, our team is preparing the grounds for winter, including leaf cleanup and removal and delineating protection zones for snow plowing in the fast-approaching winter months. Our vehicle maintenance team is repairing and preparing summer vehicles for winter storage while attaching implements for leaf and snow removal.  

Capital project work has resumed following a very productive spring season during which the Roe Green Theater Center and Greene Family Commons projects were completed; both still require final closeout attention this fall. 

We are still planning a roof rehabilitation and elevator replacement project for Smith Memorial Library, with hopes that both will be completed in the spring, depending on available resources and timing. We have a major repair scheduled for the Massey Organ chamber overhead door that was damaged during the pre-season. Some interior improvements are scheduled for Beeson Youth Center’s office areas. Work will continue on the Sports Club interior and exterior this fall and spring. At the same time, our proposed 2027 capital list is being reviewed by our Buildings & Grounds Committee and the Board of Trustees, with some proposed projects that will be announced as they are approved. 

We are also working with our Athenaeum Hotel Working Group, Athenaeum Hotel Board and the Board of Trustees Buildings & Grounds Committee to begin the design phase of a project at the Athenaeum to repair and replace remaining roofs, paint the exterior of the building and make significant structural repairs to the S. Terrace and Janes avenues corner of the building. This is the prework leading toward a larger significant historic rehabilitation project to replace and repair the porches and make some significant improvements to the public spaces inside, including the lobby ceilings, a new service bar, improvements to Heirloom Restaurant and the parlor area, and new furnishings and finishes. Architects and interior designers are in the process of submitting their proposals for this larger preservation project, with a focus on firms whose historic preservation and interior design portfolios match the high expectations of Chautauqua Institution and the Athenaeum Hotel. More to come on this philanthropic opportunity!  

Clean Water Lake research work has continued through 2026, utilizing a generous grant from Gov. Hochul’s office, and we have been working with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute scientists to discover what may be causing the excess macrophyte and algal growth in the lake. This has led to the development of a proposed scope of work to create nutrient mitigation projects for 2027. We are proposing to collaborate jointly with local lake entities on some exciting and revolutionary wetland and buffer zone projects as well as an experimental project that would extract nutrients from tributaries that enter Chautauqua Lake. This work is in the early scoping and approval phases, and we will report more as we finalize those plans.