Landscape Architect Articles

Meaningful Change: ''Placemaking'' at Simpson College, Indianola, Iowa06-10-16 | Feature

Meaningful Change
''Placemaking'' at Simpson College, Indianola, Iowa

By: G.W. Justin Platts, PLA, ASLA, LEED AP and Jonathan Martin, PLA, ASLA, RDG Planning & Design

Shortly after Simpson College's founding in 1860, trustee George Griffith initiated the planting of several maple trees on campus. Fast-forward to the present, and the century-and-a-half old trees became secondary to the street grid on the decrepit one-way C Street (left). RDG Planning & Design held open houses with the college and the community to gather input on how to create a new, more user-friendly space. Ultimately, C Street was closed and transformed into a new pedestrian thoroughfare used by students and community residents.

A highly regarded liberal arts school, Simpson College was founded in 1860 in Indianola, Iowa. Early in its existence, many soft maple seedlings were given to the students, which were transplanted to the campus on a holiday granted to the college by the president. A century and a half later, the trees still surrounded the Methodist school, but they were secondary to the street grid. The school's oldest buildings sat within a grove of maples along the decrepit one-way C Street, which divided the campus.

Brought in to study the potential closure of C Street and installation of a pedestrian plaza, RDG Planning & Design saw an opportunity for "placemaking" to meaningfully connect the school with its people and history. Placemaking uses shared meaning to transform "space" into a "place" of significance.

Landscape architects G.W. Justin Platts and Jonathan Martin emphasized the concept of "placemaking" in their design: transforming a public space into a place of significance for its visitors. Without the need for a vehicle right-of-way, the pedestrian thoroughfare was widened. The design for the path was based, appropriately, on a maple leaf, a motif found throughout the campus and the new plaza. The path's curving arcs guide visitors to different campus destinations. At the far ends of the pedestrian walkway, collapsible bollards prevent regular vehicle access but can allow emergency vehicles. The new paving, gray concrete interlaid with terra cotta colored precast concrete bricks, has a concrete subbase, allowing heavy equipment to drive over the surface without damaging it. The plaza's site furnishings are from Victor Stanley.

At Simpson College, it was clear that to meet the goals of creating a central meeting place under the maples, as well as lacing the eastern and western halves of the campus together, C Street would have to be replaced with more than a simple gathering space. While members of the college community were overwhelmingly in favor of the change, many local residents who used C Street as a main north-to-south connector were opposed. But a block away, D Street also carried traffic north and south, making C Street superfluous. The pedestrian thoroughfare that replaced it works better for the campus and community. Students who live on campus now walk freely there, as do children who cross the campus to attend an elementary school to the west.

The college wanted a location large enough to accommodate commencement crowds and other gatherings, but additional issues were raised in project open houses. Remaking the campus, the team was told, should include the removal of walls that had once been constructed to give an all-girls' dorm more privacy. In addition, a way would have to be found to allow students to see and be seen, while at the same time affording them privacy. Finally, the campus was lacking a place to meet up, one that allows a story to be created by those who use it.

Just offset from center in the new walkway is a 25-foot tall "whispering maple" sculpture. The triangular COR-TEN steel structure with tree cutouts has glass panels engraved with the final lines of the school's alma mater: "Sweet memories oft will linger. Of those dear days of old, When beneath the whis'pring maples, We flaunted the Red and Gold." Glazed terra cotta maple leaf pavers scattered on the ground around the sculpture give the impression of the maple tree shedding its leaves. The custom piece, by Dahlquist Art Studio and RDG, is illuminated at night with color-changing LEDs. The surrounding street lighting (Sternberg) was salvaged from the campus' recent lighting renovation.

Work began in spring of 2014 when C Street was closed for removal. A wider pedestrian plaza with proper drainage was constructed in its place. The challenge involved creating an area that served as a meeting place, but that was also logical from a wayfinding perspective. The designers used graceful curves mimicking maple leaves "?u forms that wouldn't announce their derivation to a visitor standing in the plaza, but that draw the eye toward an expression of a campus with destinations in different directions. The sinuous forms tie the campus together and bring the plaza to the shade of the maples.

The plaza and connected pathways' new surface is a combination of warm gray concrete and terracotta-colored precast concrete bricks. The industrial-grade construction (precast concrete over a concrete subbase) will be able to handle more heavy equipment over time and require less maintenance than other campus streets. Much of the recently installed lighting was salvaged and reused, as was an existing underground fiber optics cable. At either end of the pedestrian plaza, gateways have the Simpson College crest on bronze plaques, set into brick piers and capped with cast stone. Decorative light features in the gateway piers illuminate the logos. Hinged, collapsible bollards on either end of the walk prevent entry by ordinary vehicles but permit emergency vehicles, to move freely. The two gateways align with the core of the central campus. Slightly off to one side within the plaza's center is a new campus icon, a 25' sculpture comprising three panels of cut weathering steel showing figures of a "whispering maple." The triangular sculpture is surrounded by low masonry seat walls. A changing-color LED washes over it at night.

Team list:
RDG Planning & Design – Landscape Architect, Mechanical & Electrical Engineer, Lighting Design, Graphic Design
RDG: Dahlquist Art Studio – Artist
Bishop Engineering – Civil Engineer
Charles Saul Engineering – Structural Engineer
Simpson College – Client
The Hansen Company – Construction Manager/General Contractor

As seen in LASN magazine, June 2016.