Circling Back

I'm working on a complete re-design for Macalester Plymouth United Church in St. Paul. They originally asked us to design an empty lot next to their building, and now we're looking at the entire landscape. A house used to stand on the lot, but was demolished last year, leaving a footprint of coarse fill and exotic invasive weeds.

The project is a unique one for me, because it's so close to my Alma mater - Macalester College. The place where I put down my roots in Minnesota is just across the street.  I spent countless hours in the painting studio overlooking the very site on which I'm now working with EnergyScapes. I painted this same view from my studio space, working late at night because I enjoyed the hues that emerged from the darkness. One of my paintings is a portrait of the big white house that formerly stood on the lot next to the church. The painting is dark - a faint horizon line of tree tops against the night sky, and a roof line emerging pale against the dark background. That image, which I painted in 2002, hangs on my wall at home, a snapshot of the peaceful evenings when all I did was observe and paint.

The image I'm looking at now is bare, where the house once stood. I'm imagining swaths of colorful prairie species moving around the site. There is a patio where people will congregate and curving paths guiding them to and fro. Fragrant flowers are within arm's reach of the seating benches and new trees will grow up into their majestic canopies. The space welcomes you in and guides you about.  In spring there will be bursting buds of serviceberries and crabapples, nodding heads of Virginia bluebells and humble Uvularia. Summer will bring buzzing bees to the warm prairie flowers and grasses. Seed heads and berries will persist from fall into winter and the birds will be happy. Stormwater will stay on site with a series of rain gardens that will solve the current drainage concerns.

How could I not be excited about this project? It's my opportunity to be part of something transformative and full of energy. I feel like I've come full circle from my Macalester education to this project - finding new challenges and delights, and growing throughout the wonderful process.