Blank Performing Arts Center
Winner of the 2024 Landscape Design Award of Excellence from the Perennial Plant Association
In 2015, I was approached by staff at Simpson College to propose a new landscape for the severe, 45-degree slopes facing the Blank Performing Arts Center, the campus’ signature theatrical venue and summer home of the Des Moines Metro Opera. After a few months of concepts, the scope of the project grew beyond the capacity of the moment. The slopes remained a steep challenge.
In early 2022, Michael Egel, executive director of the Des Moines Metro Opera asked me to revisit the concept with the hopes of launching a planting project to coincide with the 50th anniversary season. I wanted to find a minimally intrusive way of embracing the existing topography to proceed expeditiously with an evocative planting. The land posed challenges and presented opportunities. I learned that the severity of the slope and its exposure were somewhat natural but exacerbated by two phases of construction over the 50-year lifespan of the building. Further, most patrons found the experience of walking into a building sunk into a hill less than thrilling, citing an unrealized potential of the landscape. Inspired by the rolling hillside prairies of the Southern Iowa Drift Plain, which you can observe just a few miles south of Indianola at aptly named Rolling Thunder Prairie State Preserve, I imagined an opportunity to convert the slopes into dynamic hillside meadows. The landscape surrounding this acclaimed facility should be of the same caliber as the performances held inside it.
Considering the dynamic nature of the campus’ use throughout the growing season, the proposed planting progresses through the growing season in three acts. Persistent scenic elements include several silver-leaved plants and diaphanous flowers to create an atmospheric effect throughout the growing season. A spring awakening features a vernal flourish of native shooting stars before a cool season palette of prairie perennials in shades of pink and blue carry the scheme through May. The summer layer strikes a rich chord to coincide with the Des Moines Metro Opera’s summer season, featuring flamboyant reds, yellows and oranges subdued by lavenders and blues for aesthetic balance. Classic summer perennials like blazingstars and coneflowers star in June and July. The underlayment of the design—a three-way matrix of low-growing native grasses—produces a final flourish in autumn, glowing in maroons, oranges and reds against the asters and goldenrods. In total, meticulous planting choices were made for dramatic floral effects, rich foliar colors, durability and long-term perennial performance. The planting consists of 38 species, 95% of which are native to Iowa and the upper Midwest.
I directed and installed the landscape in collaboration with Country Landscapes (Ames, Iowa) in early June 2022 in time for the anniversary festival season.
Click here for a full plant list across all phases of the project.
