Designing Mount Sequoyah: Landscape Architecture Students Display Designs In City Hall

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Acres of green space, expansive views and indigenous animals - all within Fayetteville city limits - have inspired University of Arkansas landscape architecture students to design innovative natural spaces in Mount Sequoyah Woods. Their work will be on display on the second floor of City Hall through April 30, providing tangible evidence of the possibilities offered by the site.

Professor Catherine Wiley charged her students with creating places "for relaxation, rejuvenation, and recreation" in the wooded acreage on the east side of Mount Sequoyah, 70 acres of which are currently offered for sale by the United Methodist Assembly. On Tuesday, April 1, the Fayetteville City Council will vote on a proposal to make a down payment of $600,000 on the land and finance the remaining $700,000 needed for its purchase.

"I wanted their designs to reveal the essence of the natural place," Wiley said.

The students began the seven-week project by studying and diagramming the slope, soils, rock formations, and water flow, as well as the experiential qualities of the site. They calculated seasonal winds and mapped the sun's path in winter and summer to determine ideal spots for hikers to rest and take in views. Indigenous plants and animals were also catalogued, and each student worked to integrate food sources and shelter for one animal species into their project.

"We want to make the landscape more accessible for people, but also increase the carrying capacity of the land for native animals," Wiley noted, adding that many animals were displaced by the Cliffs development at the bottom of Mount Sequoyah.

If you're imagining a few paths and benches, think again. Inspired by various elements at the site - rock outcroppings, the sound of wind rustling through grass and trees, a nearby bluff shelter where Native American artifacts were found - the 12 third-year students created a diverse array of responses to the site. Rick Shelton imagined a path lined with sculptures carved from native limestone, leading to an interactive sculpting garden where visitors could arrange stones and carve them with a chisel provided at the site. A two-ton "balancing rock" and a slide laid on a natural rock chute would entertain children.

"The rock and chute were already there," Shelton said. "All I added was a slide and the children."

"My project deals with rhythms on the site, particularly musical rhythms like the rustling of trees, the songs of birds, people's footsteps," explained Matt Taylor, who proposed gently resonant wind towers that would key visitors to the movement of wind across Mount Sequoyah, as well as parabolic "whisper chambers" that would facilitate listening to wildlife.

The nearby bluff shelter prompted Megan Dale to design environments that evoke Native Americans' reverence for sacred animals. For example, a canopy walk with an expansion metal floor and transparent Plexiglas railings allows visitors to retrace the soaring flight of an eagle.

"The eagle was seen by Indians as a source of water and rain; they led them to water, because that's where prey was," Dale said.

The rattlesnake, also associated with life-giving water, is suggested by a meandering path lined in native sandstone arranged to mimic the patterns of snakeskin. The association is amplified by plantings of false aloe, a native plant that rattles in the breeze.

All of the student projects incorporate signage that educates visitors about the natural features at the site. Landscape architecture professor Karen Rollet-Crocker emphasizes Mount Sequoyah's enduring value as an educational tool.

"This is a typical hillside habitat that is intact within the city," she explained. "For people to be able to enjoy it, walk around and study the natural beauty and the plants and animals that inhabit it, that would be a real educational benefit."