Prairie Sculpture Park
Edwardsville, IL
2024
Redefining What Productive Land Looks Like
The Prairie Sculpture Park began with a question: what does productive land actually mean? The agricultural site in Edwardsville was no longer productive in the conventional sense. But the instinct to replace it with more suburban development — more pavement, more lawn, more infrastructure — was exactly the logic this project was designed to challenge.
Client
City of Edwardsville
Size
6.75 Acres
Acknowledgement
Work Completed by the Kanopi Gap team while Employed at LJC Design & Engineering
The vision transforms the site into a working tallgrass prairie — a landscape that is productive in every sense that matters ecologically. Native plantings support biodiversity, filter stormwater, and reduce urban heat island effect. Accessible pathways thread through the landscape, making the ecology approachable and legible to visitors of all ages and abilities.
A rotating collection of sculptural art is integrated throughout — not placed on pedestals in a formal garden, but woven into the landscape in ways that make the art and the ecology inseparable. The park becomes a destination for art, for nature, and for play — with a playground designed to encourage children to explore the prairie rather than simply occupy a conventional play structure.
The project has been recognized by ASLA at both the local and regional level as an unbuilt design — a vision that reframes the conversation about what open land in suburban communities can become when we stop measuring productivity in acres harvested.
