The USC Peace Garden has reopened nearly 16 months after USC closed and sold its original site despite protests from students and South Los Angeles residents.
The garden has found a new home at Kerckhoff Carriage Hall, located at 734 W. Adams Blvd., about a 20-minute walk from campus.
The Peace Garden allows visitors to connect with nature in the middle of the city. Its purpose is to educate people about environmental sustainability and justice, according to USC Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, which facilitates the garden.
The wellness space features California native and climate-adaptive plants and has plans to include up to 33 plant varieties, according to Anne Skold, the Peace Garden’s design intern.
“We just hope that the biodiversity we have will be kind of a hot spot for plants and animals themselves,” Skold said.
The garden’s return follows a student-led campaign and petition that collected more than 1,300 signatures, according to change.org.
Peace Garden employees learned at the end of May 2025 that the university planned to sell the original property and gave them until June 30 to end operations, Annenberg Media reported at the time.
The announcement prompted three student employees to resign, while students and neighbors organized to preserve a space they viewed as one of the few meaningful connections between USC and the surrounding South Los Angeles community, the L.A. Times reported.
Organizers responded to the closure by circulating a Change.org petition that ultimately reached 1,367 signatures. USC’s Peace Garden Website maintained that the Shrine Place property had always been temporary and said the University was actively searching for a new location. The campaign did not reverse the sale or preserve the original site, but it placed public pressure on the university as administrators to determine what would replace it.
USC invited students, employees and community members to weigh in on the new garden location through a survey released later last year. Among its 291 respondents, the leading priorities were an on-campus or nearby location with adequate sunlight, shade and space for people to unwind.
Respondents also prioritized trees, areas for events and raised beds containing native and food-producing plants, according to results published by the USC Office of Sustainability.
After some consideration, administrators selected the lawn surrounding Kerckhoff Hall as the new garden site.
This replacement gave organizers several features they requested. According to a project description from Skold, the site is larger than the original and has room for more than 40 varieties of ground cover, shrubs, and trees.
According to USC Chan, it also reserves space for outdoor classes, community events and art installations. USC Chan offers weekly volunteering Tuesday through Sunday.
Kappa Delta Chi, a Latina-founded sorority focused on community service, has been involved with the garden’s reopening. Its members have been spending their time volunteering in the new space.
For Ale Garcia-Zeigler, KDChi’s Service Officer, the garden is a space where both plants and people can grow.
“The peace garden provides a place for people to feel at peace, feel one with nature and just be able to reflect,” Garcia-Zeigler said.
With KDChi’s roots being based in giving back to the community and helping wherever help is needed, Garcia-Zeigler believes that the garden is the perfect place to do just that.
“I think that serving our Earth is one of the most vital things that people can be doing right now. Without the Earth, we’re not here,” said Garcia-Zeigler.
Zachary Buenaventura, a sophomore PR and Advertising major, felt that the reopening of the garden was a testament to how strong the USC community is.
“I feel like our students definitely saw the importance it had, and unfortunately, even though it did close down, I think we saw how great it could be,” he said. “It’s really nice to be able to learn about sustainable living and how to grow your own food and how we can use that as a way to strengthen our community.”
With the garden just planting its roots this year, Skold has plans for a future in the garden that’s in full bloom, where community members can come together in a new third space.
“I want to have pumpkins; not this year, but next year. We want the kids to come over; hopefully I can grow enough,” said Skold. “We’re gonna have herbs for tea [...] There’ll be events, so just keep an eye out for it.”
Edited by Ally Nakamura and Andriana Yatsyshyn