“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.” -Anne Bradstreet, http://thinkexist.com/quotations/seasons/

Urban Sprawl.

My entity was probably built as a result of growing urban sprawl. The lake and the arboretum that it is located in is a piece of land reserved to be relatively free of the built environment, unlike the area that directly surrounds it. It tries to preserve the land as a natural space and keeps urban sprawl from spreading into this particular environment.

Why?

 I think my entity was developed in order to bring some natural scenery onto campus. It creates an ambient atmosphere amidst buildings filled with classrooms and lecture halls. It is the center and main focus of the arboretum.