22,000 SQ. FT.

22,000 SQ. FT. is the mantra recited in Nick Sopers head these days.  As Emerging Terrain’s Banner Installation Program Assistant, he is responsible for figuring out how to hang 22,000 square feet of art on the enormous convex concrete silo structures and then making it happen.

We immediately thought of Nick for this endeavor, for a variety of reasons.  Almost 10 years ago, while taking a park planning course with our director, Anne, Nick relayed an adventure story from his weekend.  Apparently he and a friend decided to gather up their rock climbing gear and put it to use on a nearby abandoned grain elevator.  When mountains are not a part of the local landscape vernacular, the creative, adventure seeking imagination will begin to see anything large and vertical as a potential mountain.  Not really thinking about this adventure as trespassing, Nick and his friend were surprised to soon be in conversation with a local law enforcement agent.

Nick is a landscape architect having recently acquired a Masters of Landscape Architecture from the University of Colorado – Denver and currently conducts site-specific landscape interventions with the Nebraska Department of Roads. Although he is interested in all aspects of design and planning, what really gets him worked up is construct-ability – how all the parts work together.

Nick previously managed budgeting and installation of projects based on written construction specifications for smaller landscape projects throughout Nebraska and Colorado.  In Nick’s spare time he is an avid recreational rock climber, cyclist, and bike mechanic, which combined with his experience overseeing construction, brings the necessary skills to plan and coordinate this massive installation.  Come September, Nick will regularly be seen dangling by a rope or standing on a giant hydraulic lift at the grain elevator.