Kansas University architecture student Anna Davies, Tulsa, Okla., senior, pulls on the galvanized steel platform she and her classmates were building Friday for a new overlook at KU Field Station and Ecological Reserve, north of Lawrence in Jefferson County. KU wants the outlook to attract visitors who will enjoy the view and nature of the preserve.

As part of an ongoing effort to open up the Kansas University Field Station and Ecological Reserves, students helped construct a scenic outlook this weekend.

The field station is an area north of Lawrence just over the Jefferson County line where KU researchers conduct tests, such as determining how to best preserve the naturally occurring prairie there.

“We can’t just open the area to the public because it might disturb research and disrupt wildlife,” said Scott Campbell, associate director for the KU Field Station and Ecological Reserves, or KSR.

However, with a recent land acquisition that added 160 acres to the area, some space is becoming available for public use.

KSR partnered with an architecture studio class at KU to help build a deck area for the overlook. Students taking the course from Nils Gore, associate professor of architecture and urban planning, designed the structure and built it over the weekend.

While the deck portion of the overlook is anticipated to be ready by the end of the weekend, walking trails leading to the area are not anticipated to be complete until the spring, Campbell said.

Dan Schaeffler, a Wildwood, Mo., senior in Gore’s class, said he enjoyed being able to create something that will last.

“In most design courses, you just draw it and print it out,” he said. “You don’t actually build anything.”

He and his classmates were working hard Friday to install the metal framework for the deck on a cold and muddy day. They worked atop a small cliff, where Fraser Hall and other parts of the KU campus were visible on the horizon to the south, over rolling fields.

To the north, behind them sat a rolling stretch of natural Kansas eastern tallgrass prairie.

“It’s been pretty intense the last couple of weeks just fabricating this,” Schaeffler said. “We’re proud of it.”

Campbell said local Boy Scout troops would be helping construct some of the trails later in the winter. Westar Energy donated some lumber for the project from old telephone poles. The project was funded by a donation from Richard Himes, a retired KU faculty member, and his wife, Sue.

The trails and new overlook will help highlight the naturally occurring tallgrass prairie found on KSR land.

And that prairie is getting harder to find, Campbell said. Before Douglas County was settled, 92 percent of the area was covered by the prairie. Today, that number is about one-half of 1 percent, Campbell said.