Work

Lowry Wetlands Park

Reimagining a Parkscape as a Flood Detention Facility

The 50-acre Lowry Wetlands Park provides an urban open space recreation area where enhanced habitat and a re-designed, naturalized creek co-mingle with walking paths and interpretive areas. Complex underground environmental conditions—the park is constructed within a large flood reduction facility— required innovative design solutions, which minimized disturbance and enabled construction in an active waterway.

The park is located within an Army Corps of Engineers-operated dam facility on Westerly Creek and is designed to accommodate and support improved water quality treatment for urban stormwater. In addition to water quality enhancements, the park is designed to manage 100-year flood events, in compliance with the Mile High Flood District’s maintenance requirements, the Army Corps’ operations branch, and the City and County of Denver’s Wastewater department standards.

For portions of this project, Stream principals led the management design and implementation phase while working with Wenk Associates. Stream has been retained for additional design and planning services here and for other Lowry Parks.