Work

Great Lawn Park and Sundial

Envisioning a Creek and Well-Loved Community Park

Location: Denver, CO

The 52-acre Great Lawn Park offers expansive views to the mountains of the Front Range, a graceful new channel for Westerly Creek that includes ponds and wetlands, natural areas, walking paths and trails, and a vast grassy meadow for events, sports, and passive enjoyment. Abundant wildlife frequent the ponds and wetlands and offer an opportunity for meaningfully engaging with nature while in the middle of an urban setting. The park also features an overlook plaza, large playground, multiple picnic areas, and a visit-worthy 90-foot sundial at the end of 6th Avenue and serves as an important gathering place in the Lowry neighborhood.

Although the park now offers a bucolic escape from the bustle of a busy city, the design team had to accommodate numerous constraints and environmental issues, because the site is a former Air Force base. The biggest challenge was groundwater pollution. The design team coordinated with environmental clean-up engineers to accommodate the required remediation.

*For portions of the project, Stream principals led the management, design and implementation phases while working at Wenk Associates. Stream has been retained for additional design and planning services here, and other Lowry parks.