Design Concepts
Redesigning Possibilities: How Butterfield ...

Possibilities Playground at Butterfield Crossing Park is a bold rethinking of what inclusive play can be. Designed as a sensory-rich, fully accessible space shaped by community input, it invites children and caregivers of all abilities to connect, explore, and belong, together.

Redesigning Possibilities: How Butterfield Crossing Park Became a New Benchmark for Inclusive Play
Design Concepts
Pickleball Court Design: Maximizing Fun and ...

Pickleball is one of the hottest trends in recreation right now, and for good reason. It’s a welcoming sport that offers an abundance of fun. It’s known as a ‘game for everyone.’ Pickleball encourages physical activity to improve people’s fitness and wellness. As park designers, we see pickleball on the agenda for most of the park projects we work on.

Pickleball Court Design: Maximizing Fun and Functionality
Erik Spring
Erie Community Park: Third and Final Phase

This summer we celebrated the grand opening of the third and final phase of Erie Community Park. 12 acres of features were added to this park extending its value to the community. The park is consistently filled with people enjoying all it has to offer, and we could be more excited to see that enthusiasm.

Erie Community Park: Third and Final Phase
Design Concepts
Outdoor Classrooms: Now More Than Ever

This past year, schools all over the country were forced to allow fewer students inside and keep classes physically separate from each other, making their outside spaces a hot commodity. In many cases schools had to scramble to figure out ways to make this happen with little time to plan. We propose that to better equip schools for the future, more time, funding, and attention is needed to design these outdoor learning environments in ways students, teachers and the neighboring community can enjoy throughout the year.

Outdoor Classrooms: Now More Than Ever
Design Concepts
Two Hunters Park: A Tribute to Mark Martinez ...

Parks all around the world are known for igniting emotions of hope, peace, and optimism. Two Hunters Park, a commemorative park honoring the lives of Mark Martinez and Joey Irwin of Firestone, CO is no exception.

Two Hunters Park: A Tribute to Mark Martinez and Joey Irwin

Behind the Design at the Fairgrounds ... Nature Play

The ‘play valley’ is designed especially for children to engage with the environment and interact with nature. It is a contoured natural play field gently sloping down to the pond.  

In the valley, what seems to be part of the natural environment is actually designed into the site for the sole purpose of enticing children to play.  There are stepping logs, bridge log crossings, wood footbridges, and stepping-stones strategically placed for children to explore and play.  The contoured hills along the valley are natural magnets for kids to climb, and roll back down.  Even the pathway leading through the valley is a meandering winding trail that could create a journey. The most obvious feature throughout the valley is the stream making its way from the windmill down to the pond. It’s designed to mimic an eastern prairie stream that trickles and flows and even pools up in some areas. It’s a soft low-flowing enticing stop for children who will by their own nature, walk in it, splash in it and likely even sit in it!  

Nature play is about non-structure play. It’s ‘free play’ unbounded by structures or formality. It’s putting children in their natural environment and letting their minds work…naturally.  Here, there are simply opportunities provided to encourage that interaction.

The stream flowing over rock drops at Arapahoe Fairgrounds Park

Behind the Design at the Fairgrounds ... Water!

Water is an important feature.  It’s being re-introduced on the site, re-purposed, and used in a variety of ways as features of the park.  

The Stream and its Well Water

A new well was drilled to re-introduce water, as it was a critical asset in the history of the homestead life.  Well water is used to create the stream and fill the two ponds.

The stream is fed by an aquifer that is pumped to the surface and used not only as a play and aesthetic element, but also for all of the site's irrigation demand. The site is primarily covered in native grasses, but also includes some turf grass for the heavier demand events brought by the fair

Water Vault

A specially engineered vault holds well water as well as additional sourced water.  About 20,000 gallons of water is stored in the vault that is located underneath the shed in the valley and constructed of poured-in-place concrete.

Ponds

There are two ponds, both roughly ten feet deep providing a natural circulation as the warmer water rises to the surface.

The lower pond is an irrigation retention storage pond.  Detention water from storm and runoff bypasses the lower pond and goes directly to the detention pond at the northwest corner of the site.

The upper pond is located at the lower end of the valley, situated between several hills and swales.  Its water control systems like the wetland shelf look like naturally formed features.  The ‘situation basin’, designed to mitigate sediment flow, looks like a naturally created wading pool.  Two sunken rock piles and sunken logs will provide perfect habitats for fish and eventually, cattails will re-populate the wetlands area.

Behind the Design at the Fairgrounds ... “Contouring the Prairie Land”

From a gradual sloping 40-acre site, to a seemingly random rise and fall of ground swells, the park site was intentionally contoured as a design element.  Swales, berms, mesa-top hills, peaks, canyons and ridge-top expanses provide areas equivalent to secret gardens, choreographed views with window-like peeks into special areas, and natural stadium-like viewing from hillsides.

The most orchestrated view is found at the western-most entry where the eye is led across the roundabout, skimming the lower pond, up to the hilltop windmill, and terminating at the water tower with blue skies beyond.  It’s not a simple ‘Point A to Point B’ in its design; rather, it’s a flowing view along the contouring ground forms. The entry experience is a progression of glimpses into the site gradually bringing the visitor from their life outside the site to a unique fairgrounds experience.

The contouring also minimizes the frequent harsh winds prevalent on the high plains prairieland. In fact, the initial site visit conversation with Jim Abendschan, former fairgrounds manager, confirmed the constant impact:

Design Concepts: “So Jim, is the wind always blowing out here?”

Jim: “Well . . . yes, if it’s not blowing from the north, it’s blowing from the south, east or west.”

Behind the Design at the Fairgrounds ... “The Iconic Jackleg / Buck & Rail Fence.”

One of the most iconic images of the historic ranch and farm is the jackleg / buck & rail fence (the terms ‘jackleg’ and ‘buck & rail’ are used interchangeably).  Ideal for the homesteaders of the early 1900’s, and commonly seen dotting the vast landscape, the jackleg fence doesn’t require digging postholes.  This was especially convenient on dry hardened prairielands and before the invention of posthole digging technology.

At The Park at Arapahoe Fairgrounds, jackleg / buck & rail fences are scattered throughout. At the main entry, the fence is a primary layer of the hedgerow, used decoratively but also serving as a natural windbreak—a common necessity on the high plains prairie.  The locally sourced logs are untreated with remaining bark left intact to create the authenticity of the homesteader’s farm.

Buck and Rail Fence Construction Detailing

It’s high noon in Bellevue, Washington and the only place to be is at the groundbreaking ceremony for Inspiration Playground!

On June 21, 2016 at high noon, the long awaited groundbreaking for the trailblazing Inspiration Playground will take place in downtown Bellevue, Washington.  The new urban playground, designed to serve children of all abilities, will raise the bar like no other inclusive playground. 

Here, everyone who comes will have every opportunity to experience the joys of outdoor play with multi-sensory play spaces, carefully tailored to all types of abilities.  From water play, tactile features, climbing structures, rain gardens, musical play, planted vine tunnels, interactive lighting, the grand ‘Wisdom Tree’ and more, the design of multi-sensory experiences are passionately embraced and explored!

With all that to be found inside this playground, the variety of design stories will be unveiled as construction progresses and the grand opening is in sight.   

Design Concepts is an M/WBE, SBE Landscape Architecture design firm with the City and County of Denver and a DBE under the US Department of Transportation’s Colorado Unified Certification Program (UCP).