Enhanced public spaces and more public art -- those are just two aspects of one student's vision for the Knox College campus.

Fulfilling one of the requirements for her major in studio art -- the  ten-week-long immersive program "Open Studio" -- graduating senior Rhiannon Neuville-Norton designed and built a scale model of the central section of the Knox campus.

In addition to a model and renderings of landscape designs, Neuville-Norton laid out several imagined details, such as plantings inspired by Knox's prairie heritage and a series of sculptures linked by a cross-campus walkway.

"I think of our campus as having wide open lawns that are great for activities," she says. "I wanted to use landscaping and art to create 'special' spaces... I've incorporated a lot of native prairie plants (in the design), to allow it to change over time and still keep the space relevant to the campus."

Neuville-Norton, who's planning to work in urban design and landscape design, elaborated on her concept in her Artist's Statement:

My current work is strongly influenced by landscape architecture and urban planning.

Logic and critical problem-solving skills enable me to make functional design decisions. A broad framework for my project is established through a series of practical choices -- sidewalks, water drainage, safety, etc. This framework is filled in with more and more structure as the project becomes focused, creating a complex but stable (plan).

Playfulness and an emotional connection inspire me and push my work forward. I learn as much as I can about the space I am working with so I can feel connected to it and help others connect to it as well. The sturdy framework is filled in with ideas for playfulness and discovery, which don't fit perfectly into the rigid structure. They expand in all directions and flow outside the lines, giving the logical structure life.

"I've built models of single spaces, but this is the largest model I've done," said Norton-Neuville, who also studied set and lighting design at Knox. She worked to future-proof her plan, through plantings that are low maintenance and drought-tolerant.

The project -- which included a campus survey "to find out what people already liked, what they wanted to see" -- was an unusual way to fulfill the requirements for Open Studio, the culminating experience for Studio Art majors. The Knox art faculty "let me go in a different direction," Neuville-Norton says.

• More photos of Rhiannon Neuville-Norton's project at the Knox College Flickr page