IOWA FALLS — Imagine acres of flat land devoid of landscaping or color scheme, barren without shade trees, walkways or visible trails.

This is the image surrounding Calkins Nature Area in Iowa Falls that Iowa State students in Landscape Architecture 404 are trying to change.

“What we do for communities is to expand their ideas and vision of how their particular site could be enhanced by the right design approach,” said William Grundmann, associate professor of landscape architecture who teaches the class.

“We tend not to decorate but to look at a comprehensive view of what is possible and what we feel should be accomplished for the particular site,” he said.

The six students in Grundmann’s class have been working on site and development plans for the area surrounding the nature center for six weeks.

They got the chance to present their ideas Monday to members of the Hardin County Conservation Commission and the Ellsworth Community College Trustees.

“Students gain the real life reality of working with local groups,” Grundmann said. “They get feedback and opportunities to stand in front of people they don’t know and present their ideas. Students don’t usually get a chance to do that.”

This is the second time the students have visited Calkins Nature Area in Hardin County, which was donated in 1981 by Homer Calkins. The students worked on plans last year that encompassed all of the area’s 76 acres. This semester, their plans zero in on the landscaping that surrounds the nature center building, Grundmann said.

“It’s fun to come back to Calkins and do more detailed planning,” said Chris Keithley, senior in landscape architecture.

The students’ site and development plans incorporate specific guidelines such as an a sense of arrival, a private area around the nature center, parking, an amphitheater and a cure for the drainage problem to the east of the building, which the clients asked for, Grundmann said.

“We take into consideration what the client would like to do, but generally, we expand their viewpoint of what is the best approach to the overall design,” he said.

The clients will discuss the plans and decide which features they want to eventually incorporate.

“It’s been great, a learning experience,” said Duane Reiken, executive director of Hardin County Conservation Commission. “Having Grundmann’s class out once again brings it all together for us.”

Earlier in the semester, the class submitted plans for the ongoing Fairfield Bay project in Arkansas, spending a week there working on a retirement resort/community center complex, Grundmann said.

The next class project begins in two weeks, creating a design concept that reestablishes the entrance to the Neveln Community Resource Center in Ankeny.

Before the semester ends, the class also will be developing plans for the Aspen Grove Cemetery in Burlington, Ill., that will incorporate the old character of the cemetery from the mid-1800s to the newer part, Grundmann said.