Sacred Places
Urban Dreams Community Courtyard
A vacant lot beside the offices, now a stage, a pathway, and a memorial.
WHERE
Des Moines, IA
SETTING
Neighborhood
PARTNER INSTITUTION
Urban Dreams
Visit
Where it is
601 Forest Ave, Des Moines, IA 50314
What happens here
The stage hosts performances and doubles as a hangout when it is not in use. The gathering area in front of it is spacious and takes flexible uses. Percussion Play instruments line the mulch pathway. A water fountain and electrical outlets meet needs the community named directly.
HOW IT CAME TO BE
The community mapped it first.
Drag to see the transformation.
01
The Need
Urban Dreams works to remove barriers to its community members' success, drawing on deep experience of listening to that community. The lot next to their offices sat vacant.
02
The Vision
The idea for a pocket park, and the design elements within it, came directly out of a community asset mapping project run with Iowa State University. What the community named was specific: a performance stage, phone charging stations, Percussion Play instruments, a community garden, a little free food pantry, and a small memorial area with fruit trees and other plantings. Those elements kept being added to and refined through the design process as Urban Dreams responded to what its constituents said they needed. Nature Sacred provided Design Advisory Services, working with Urban Dreams and their landscape design team on how the four design elements could be creatively interpreted here.
03
The Transformation
The stage became the primary component, with tiered planting beds of grasses and perennials in front of it softening the hardscape. Along one side of the site a mulch pathway trails through the Percussion Play instruments and then through a double row of limestone block seating. At one end of that pathway, between it and the street, a large pine tree and a memorial boulder recognize Urban Dreams' founder; at the other end sits the bench. Raised planters give a defined but permeable edge between the site and the streetscape.
WHO TENDS IT
Kali Douglass
Firesoul, Urban Dreams Community Courtyard
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Izaah Knox
Firesoul, Urban Dreams Community Courtyard
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HEAR FROM THE VISITORS
From the Little Yellow Journal
Thank you for putting this park here for us to hang out in
– Bubblez
