| Battling invasive weeds on newly planted University
land by the new Athletics Hall of Fame initially
was a chore for University groundskeepers; overcoming
the
public’s perception of the acreage has been
another.
Campus planner Larry Wilson started receiving complaints
last year about unsightly vegetation along the median
of Mormon Trek Boulevard near Melrose Avenue. What
the callers didn’t know, however, is that freezing
temperatures would soon kill the uninvited guests
and that the remaining growth had rhyme and reason.
The plantings on the median and on the land that
envelops the adjacent hall of fame and planned athletics
complex are part of two projects that incorporate
sustainable landscaping, the use of self-sustaining
native plants that reflect harmony between nature
and urban development. Once established, these plants
require minimal labor, watering, and chemical use,
therefore saving the University money in maintenance
costs. They also attract wildlife and help control
erosion and weeds.
University officials began exploring the concept
more than a decade ago, when they chose to locate
the new athletics facilities on the site west of
Finkbine Golf Course. Wilson says project planners
wanted to pursue landscaping that would complement
the architecture and work well within the existing
environment.
“It’s a matter of harmony,” he
explains. “We wanted the building and the landscape
to be in harmony with each other and also in harmony
with the ecological zone.”
Project planners wanted “very simple, very
bold” architecture surrounded by a “bold
platform of prairie,” he says.
The Boston-based landscape architecture firm Michael
Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc., devised the master
landscape plan for both the athletics site and the
Mormon Trek median. The firm implemented the athletics
site design, while local landscape architect Laura
Hawks applied the roadway planting design. Cultivation
of the 37-acre athletics site began two summers ago,
and the area immediately surrounding the hall of
fame was planted late last fall.
The prairie plants selected survive and thrive in
eastern Iowa and fit the overall design theme. The
flora include butterfly milkweed, prairie clover,
and river birch. Native hackberry and prairie dropseed
are among the plants on the Mormon Trek median.
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| Sustainable-landscaping
project on the median of Mormon Trek Boulevard. |
The lower areas that collect water have more water-related
plants, Wilson explains, while the higher ground—just
north of the hall of fame—is home to an “edited” prairie
meadow.
“It’s not a complete native prairie
mix,” he says. “We’ve overloaded
it with wildflowers to keep the public interest higher.”
Prairie meadow plants also surround the competition
soccer field on the west side of the site, and a
reforestation zone buffers the field from an adjacent
University housing development.
When the landscape is mature—two or three
years from now—it will continually have plants
in bloom. In the meantime, Wilson invites the public
to stroll along a mowed grass pathway and watch the
progress. He plans to eventually post interpretive
signs.
Besides its aesthetic value, this prairie is a working
landscape, Wilson says. Because of the area’s
natural wetlands, University officials worked with
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to implement a water
filtration system using a series of settling basins
and infiltration strips that help clean the water
as it flows northward from the south and east toward
the wetlands and Clear Creek.
“Another aspect of this project will be an
educational element,” Wilson says. “We’ve
already had a teacher from Clear Creek-Amana High
School bring her environmental studies students to
the site.”
Similar landscaping projects on campus include the
volunteer-run restoration of prairie remnants in
lower Finkbine Golf Course and west of the Ronald
McDonald House. In addition, a pilot project along
the Iowa River near the Iowa Memorial Union uses
strategic planting to stabilize the riverbank.
Emil Rinderspacher, senior associate director of
admissions, is a certified master gardener through
Iowa State University Extension. He says interest
in sustainable landscaping is growing, especially
within commercial development.
“I can see why some people don’t like
this type of design. We are so conditioned to manicured
lawns, and this has a wilder look. But more and more
people are catching on,” he says. “I
think the project by the hall of fame works perfectly
in that setting. On the Pentacrest, it would be out
of context.”
The state of Iowa, he notes, has adopted the concept
of sustainable landscaping along roadways, opting
to grow wildflowers instead of mowing. And two neighbors
in his subdivision north of Iowa City, he adds, have
substituted native prairie plants for lawn.
“Not only is it beautiful, it saves money.”
Wilson says he is pleased with the project and how
rich the landscape already has become. Plus, no complaints
have been filed this summer.
“Sustainable landscaping has been a trend
in other places across the country in the past few
years, but not in this part of the Midwest,” he
says. “Other universities are doing similar
types of plantings, but not quite like this. This
is pretty unique.”
by Sara Epstein Moninger
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