Quincy Herald-Whig | Illinois & Missouri News, SportsBush library to feature park recreating prairie

By JAMIE STENGLE Associated Press

DALLAS (AP) - A 15-acre park at the upcoming George W. Bush Presidential Center will recreate a Texas prairie, complete with a wildflower meadow, a new blend of native grasses and even trees transplanted from the former president's ranch.

"I'm really excited about it. I think it's so pretty, so beautiful," said former first lady Laura Bush, who said she envisions people strolling along the park's paths and picnicking there once the center opens at the end of April.

The park's landscaping, which was just completed this month, recreates the kind of prairie landscape that would have existed in the area before the city was here, said Mark Langdale, president of the George W. Bush Foundation.

The wildflower meadow should include Indian paintbrush, evening primrose, and, of course, Texas' beloved state flower, the bluebonnet, when it blooms next year.

"This spring I'm feeling pretty good we'll have some bluebonnets," said the center's landscape project manager Herb Sweeney IV, a senior associate with the landscape architecture firm Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc.

The presidential center on the campus of Southern Methodist University will feature a library including archives and a museum. The approximately 227,000-square-foot, three-story center, will also house Bush's policy institute.

The museum will feature a Texas interpretation of the White House Rose Garden, which Laura Bush said museum-goers will come to about halfway through their visit. She said the garden, lined with trees and roses and featuring benches and a replica of the West Wing Colonnade, will be a peaceful spot for reflection after going through exhibits covering the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"They'll be able at that point to step out, and they say if you can get out in the sunshine and outside, you'll feel refreshed and then you can go back and do the second half of the museum," Bush said.

From the rose garden, visitors will be able to see a view of downtown Dallas and also look out over the park, which will spread out to the south behind the building.

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Quincy Herald-Whig | Illinois & Missouri News, SportsBush library to feature park recreating prairie