Studio City residents and council members celebrated the unveiling of Fairway Garden, a garden located on the small hillside on Fairway Avenue and Ventura Boulevard, Feb. 10. The school collaborated with the Studio City Business District (SCBD) and Studio City Beautification Association (SCBA) in creating the garden.

The event included a ribbon-cutting ceremony and speakers including President Rick Commons, Los Angeles City Council Member Nithya Raman and SCBD Executive Director Vicki Nussbaum. The Los Angeles City Council bestowed a Certificate of Appreciation to the school for funding the project. Roughly 20 people attended the event, all of whom worked on the project, according to Director of Community and Public Affairs Stacy Marble.

Seven years ago, the SCBD planned to add a sidewalk and stretch of retaining wall to the Ventura Boulevard and Fairway Avenue intersection. The SCBA and SCBD later developed a project to add a garden on the hill above the retaining wall, which the school provided funds for, according to Nussbaum. Wildflora developed the beautification plans and found the wildlife. Many of the species in the garden are native plants.

Nussbaum said it was heartwarming to see community members put a large amount of effort into working on developing the Fairway Garden.

“We can do small things with great love and make a big difference,” Nussbaum said. “[Developing this garden] was almost an act of love for all [the people who worked on the project] who shepherded this project [to] plant some plants and irrigate them.”

Head of Communications and Strategic Initiatives Ari Engelberg ’89 said the school sponsored the garden because it felt it would benefit the community.

“[The school] has been in Studio City since 1937, so we’ve had a long relationship with a number of organizations in Studio City, and [SCBA] is one of them,” Engelberg said. “If there are neighborhood groups that are working on projects that are going to enhance the quality of life for the community, including members of [the school] community, it makes sense for us to support them.”

Engelberg said though the SCBA is a sister organization to the Studio City Residents Association (SCRA), which advocates for the preservation of Weddington Golf & Tennis over the school’s River Park, the school’s working relationship with both organizations remains largely unaffected.

“There are times when [the SCRA’s] advocacy for residents may lead them in a direction of not supporting that [which] the school is trying to accomplish, and that’s their right,” Engelberg said. “We wouldn’t ever refuse to support a project in the neighborhood just because it’s associated with SCRA. They do a lot of good work, and we’re happy to be associated with the good work that they do.”

Marble said the event helped bring together all the different councils in Studio City.

“[The event] was a wonderful opportunity for the school to join together with our community partners to make an improvement to our neighborhood, ” Marble said. “Some of the native plants set down are going to take a while to grow, but [the garden] can only look better from here.”