Working four 10-hour days a week through July, the Iowa State University students in the landscape architecture department are digging out paths, excavating the patio area and laying out their design for a "decompression" space for prison officers. The design calls for limestone, left over from last year's construction, plus gravel, brick and concrete pavers, which they hope to have donated, along with planting materials.

In the summer of 2013, Iowa State University (Ames) Assistant Professor Julie Stevens and her department of landscape architecture students built outdoor classrooms at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women's, part of a $68 million modernization and expansion project.

During that time, the professor and students noticed correctional officers staying in the parking lot after their shifts to socialize and "decompress" from the stress of the workday. With that in mind, Stevens and nine landscape architecture students this summer are designing and building an outdoor area for correctional officers and staff. It's adjacent to the new admin building that opened last fall, part of the massive construction project's first phase. Work is continuing on phase two this summer.

Working as paid interns, the students are getting a real world design-build experience.

"I wanted to see a project from a design on our computers through the built project," explains Lauren Iversen, a senior from Waukee.

The prison employees gave the design students some wish lists. Warden Patti Wachtendorf asked for a magnolia tree and memorial garden in honor of past employees. Correctional officers and staff wanted a space that could accommodate several dozen people for an occasional staff barbecue, or small group meetings. They all asked for some privacy, seating and leaning walls (night shifters need to lean, not sit, which makes them sleepy), plus some protection from the sun and wind.

The design does include the warden's wishes: a memorial garden with a water feature, and a magnolia to replace one lost to construction. A tree-lined path will lead from the staff entrance sidewalk to a hardscape patio and windbreak on the north side of the building. A three-tiered, 30-by-40 foot patio will feature small group and private seating areas, a built-in grill and a vegetative privacy wall of clematis. The leaning walls are 4-feet high.

"The students did a phenomenal job," said Todd Givens, correctional officer. "They took our suggestions and came up with a design that not only met our expectations and wants, but in my mind, exceeded them."

Stevens is thrilled the mason from Hanson Masonry, Owen, Wis., who did the prison buildings' brickwork, is returning to teach the students how to build masonry walls. And he's donating the materials.

The windbreak design was challenging, as many plants typically used in Iowa windbreaks are increasingly susceptible to diseases (green ash and Scotch pine), drought (white pine) or are invasive (honey suckle), explained Madison Dierks, a senior from Des Moines. With advice from ISU Extension and Outreach specialists, coupled with the students' research, the windbreak design calls for red twig dogwood, hazelnut, Ponderosa pine, white spruce, hackberry, buttonbush and witch hazel. A grove of aspen that fades into the windbreak will tie into the planting design inside the security fence.

A team of students and prisoners are planting grass, trees and native plants around the outdoor classrooms, following the planting design of Tara Bounds, a graduate student from Orion, Illinois, and Stevens' teaching assistant. After graduating from Drake University, Bounds worked in a native plants greenhouse and has extensive experience in prairie restoration. Bounds' plant design includes silky aster thimbleweed, alumroot, prairie petunia, sedges, grasses and a hillside grove of aspens. The thin trunks of aspen trees grow tall. The foliage can be kept at a level higher than six feet, a necessity for security and surveillance. Offenders will maintain the prairie beds and other plantings around the outdoor classrooms.

Bounds is also designing a community park outside the security perimeter, which will connect with local bike trails. Her students next year will design a new kitchen garden and production greenhouse to replace those razed by the construction project.

Assistant Professor Julie Stevens says she and her students won't be finished until the mother-child garden, her favorite project, is installed. She's also writing a couple of book chapters and some journal articles about this project. Meanwhile, Iowa Department of Corrections Director John Baldwin has asked her to create a design for the new men's facility in Fort Madison.