A park will soon take over an unused lot next to Midco in downtown Lawrence, incorporating native plants with the work of several local artisans and offering community members a chance to step into the role of stewards of native land.

The park, called Midco Prairie by Native Lands, is a collaboration between Midco and Native Lands Restoration Collaborative.

Midco CEO Pat McAdaragh reached out to Native Lands last fall after the cable and internet provider relocated to a space near the corner of Seventh and Rhode Island streets.

McAdaragh said Midco did not have a pressing need for the lot adjacent to its new location. Although the company could have paved it over for a parking lot or sold it, McAdaragh ultimately decided to make it into a park after he and his wife pursued a similar prairie restoration project next to their home in Minnesota. 

“It’s just really kind of a gift, both to our employees that will be close by there, and to the community at large,” McAdaragh said. “I think it’s the best and highest use of that little piece of land there.”

McAdaragh, who said he believes the prairie is underappreciated, sought out the expertise of Courtney Masterson, ecologist and executive director at Native Lands, to participate in this partnership, which McAdaragh said is like “a marriage made in heaven.” 

Midco, which is fully funding the park, is giving Native Lands full creative freedom.

Masterson began by sketching blueprints for the park before meeting with Sur Landscape Architecture in Kansas City to render final images. 

Since the lot is in a hot, dry space, Masterson plans to incorporate the native plants of the Douglas County prairie, such as blue grama and sideoats grama. These grasses, with roots that can spread several feet deep, are extremely drought tolerant, which will allow them to thrive in the park. 

Masterson also plans to preserve the current native trees on the lot, including a pin oak tree.

“I’m really excited about a great diversity of native plants being available to the community without asking them to drive out into the country, into a rural area,” Masterson said. 

Just blocks away from schools and the Lawrence Public Library, the park will not only offer a shady respite from the Kansas heat, but also a place for educators, artists and community members to gather. 

Masterson is looking for community partners to help design thematic, educational gardens, including native dye gardens, native medicine gardens, bird gardens, and wetland gardens for educators to have the chance to bring students and let them interface with native plants and animals.

“There’s these intentional design spaces where we’ll have educational signage, and then on the outer rim and on the interior of the park, you’ll see more naturalized spaces that resemble true prairie,” Masterson said. 

Also an artist, Masterson looks forward to creating a space where other artists and creatives come and draw inspiration from the prairie. Local artists will also contribute to the space, including Karl Ramberg and his sister, Laura Ramberg. 

Karl, a local sculptor and stonemason, will replace the existing concrete walls with native stone walls. He will also install ADA accessible native flagstone pathways and carve small bowls for people to leave offerings or objects.

Laura, a ceramicist and sculptor, will carve native animals from the prairie to be hidden throughout the park for visitors to find. 

“I really wanted to incorporate collaboration with someone who understood native stone and embraced the beauty of it and loved the story of it and the relationship of stone to the prairie,” Masterson said. “Karl has worked many, many times in collaboration with his sister, and he thought that her carvings of animals would be a really beautiful addition to the park.”

Tim O’Brien, a local woodworker, will craft custom signage for the park alongside a picnic table and benches for people to sit and gather.

The ribbon cutting for the park is currently set for October, but Masterson emphasized that it will take several years for the area to start looking like a naturalized prairie as the plants anchor into the soil.

In the meantime, both Masterson and McAdaragh are excited for community members to learn more about the prairie and quite literally step into the native landscape as stewards of native land. 

“I think from a distance, it’s hard to understand why native landscapes are important if you never go there and if they feel really far away,” Masterson said.

“If you can step into a prairie one block away from the public library on foot, suddenly it’s real. Suddenly it’s the space you really care about, and even if it’s not your job, even if you’re not directly impacted, you can tell those landscapes take really good care of us.”

Hannah Loub (she/her), reporting intern with The Lawrence Times since January 2026, is a journalism and global and international studies major at the University of Kansas. She is currently the lead digital producer for KUJH and worked as a beat reporter for the University Daily Kansan. Read her work for the Times here.

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