Minden firm helps design Olympic art in Beijing park

A Minden-based landscape architecture firm has lent a helping hand in the construction of a 4-mile mural project in the International Sculpture Park in Beijing, China for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

"There will be 191 mural displays, one for each country participating in the games," said Casey Barnes, owner of Designing with Nature, Inc. "It will be the largest outdoor art project in history."

Barnes was contacted by the Wyland Foundation about ideas for the mural project. Robert Wyland, a renown marine life artist, was chosen as the official artist for the Olympics. The 191 conservation-themed murals, entitled "Hands Across the Ocean," will each be 50 feet wide and 10 feet tall.

"Children from each country will paint the murals during the Olympics," Barnes said. "We looked at hanging murals on buildings, kiosk designs and column structures."

Barnes said the Chinese government preferred his design of bamboo poles driven into the ground at different intervals along the trail on which murals would be hung.

"Bamboo is cheap, and it's native to China," he said.

Barnes said Designing with Nature donated the conceptual work for free, excited to be part of the Olympics.

"I wish I could go and see it, but I just can't get away," he said. "After the Olympics, the murals will be displayed at Sea World, Busch Gardens and other places."

Barnes started Designing with Nature in 1989 in Southern California. He and his family moved to Carson Valley in 1996.

"It was a quality of life issue," he said. "It took till about 1999 to get everything in the business transferred up here."

Since then, the company has grown from a one-employee operation to a 20-employee operation.

"We stay very busy, even in this economy," he said. "Part of the reason we've done so well is that we're diversified; we do design, construction, nursery and maintenance."

Designing with Nature is working on a new landscape for Coleville High School, the landscape design for a student housing project in Mammoth Lakes, Calif. and a 5-acre prayer park for St. Gall Catholic Church in Gardnerville, entailing a labyrinth, outdoor amphitheater, gazebo and rose garden.

Barnes said he does a lot of rock work and waterfall design.

"One of my favorite projects was a swimming pond for a Skyline Ranch house," he said. "It had what's called an 'infinity edge,' where water appears to be running over the side but is really dropping into a trough."

Designing with Nature, Inc. is located at 1616 Highway 395 and can be reached at 782-4999.