Thousands of students walk across Iowa State’s central campus everyday.

Since June, they have been strolling through one of only three central campuses in the country to be named a Medallion site by the American Society of Landscaping Architects (ASLA).

A medallion representing the award will be presented to ISU President Martin Jischke by the ASLA today at 3:30 p.m. in a ceremony west of the Campanile. After the ceremony, the medallion will be affixed to a rock on central campus.

Stretching from the Memorial Union to MacKay Hall and from Beardshear Hall to Curtiss Hall, central campus was planned by ISU President A. S. Welch in 1869, said Robert Harvey, retired professor of landscape design.

Harvey said Welch personally began the work on central campus, aided by his class of five landscape architecture students.

Since then, many landscaping artists from both ISU and outside firms have worked on the area, and Welch’s open, park-like theme has not been abandoned, Harvey said. Today there are 490 acres of trees, plants and buildings, including the 20-acre central lawn.

“Today people work to renew it and keep it with the same character,” said Harvey, who has studied the history of landscape architecture at ISU. “I’m almost sure we have had an uninterrupted flow of landscape gardening, landscape design and landscape architecture on campus.”

The Medallion awards were given in conjunction with ALSA’s centennial this year. Christopher Seeger, ASLA chapter treasurer, said the award is given to landscaped areas that are well-known by the general public, contribute to the community’s quality of life and have instant name recognition. The areas also must be popular, much-used and well-loved.

ISU was one of more than 300 sites chosen to receive the Medallion award, Seeger said. Of those 300, 13 are on college campuses, and only three are central campus sites: ISU, the University of Virginia and Yale University.

This is not the first time ISU has received national recognition for its landscaping beauty, said Mark Engelbrecht, dean of the College of Design. In 1991, the campus was featured as one of the country’s 25 most-beautiful campuses in a book titled, “The Campus as a Work of Art.”

Engelbrecht said the Medallion award reinforces what ISU faculty and students already know. “This is an asset to the community that is nationally recognized and needs to be taken care of,” he said.

John McCarroll, director of University Relations, also said central campus is breathtaking.

“Iowa State has always taken great care of campus and has taken great pride in the campus, especially the central campus,” he said. “It is very common to hear compliments about campus.”