Dirt Works Studio was honored with an invitation from the University of Kansas Field Station to design and construct a new entrance gateway that would serve as a formal threshold to the organization’s Armitage Education Center. Situated in northern Lawrence, Kansas, this site sits within a dynamic intersection of prairie, woodland, and educational infrastructure—an ideal setting to explore the relationship between architecture, ecology, and place.

The design responds directly to this unique context with a 35-foot-long rammed earth wall that emerges from the ground as if born of the very landscape it inhabits. Its layered strata echo the geological history beneath the prairie, while its materiality—earth sourced and compacted from the surrounding region—cements the structure’s deep connection to the land. Just as the native trees around the site rise with subtle elegance from the grasslands, the wall rises with quiet strength, marking the transition from wild landscape to cultivated field station.

More than a physical structure, the Field Station Gateway is a moment of passage—both literal and symbolic. It announces arrival, guides orientation, and encourages a pause. Acting as a wayfinding element, the wall integrates signage that welcomes visitors to the Field Station. But its role transcends function: the wall is also a gesture of reverence, a sculptural homage to the enduring prairie ecosystem that defines the Kansas landscape.

In its simplicity and solidity, the Field Station Gateway seeks to embody the ethos of Dirt Works Studio: to create place-based architecture that is thoughtful, tactile, and deeply rooted in the cultural and environmental narratives of its site.