This summer, students in the intro to landscape architecture studio developed their sketching skills as well as a design intervention proposal for Boulder’s Central Park.

Twice weekly, students participated in workshops that explored the basics of sketching and visual notetaking, which encourage them to find their own style and use different mediums.

Over the course of five weeks, the class was tasked to explore, analyze and produce a concept that would improve Boulder’s, Central Park. Each student produced early concepts to drive their final project and presented a final proposal for the park during the week of July 6.

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This week, a final design was chosen for a networking and communications center, from Senior Instructor Jade Polizzi and Instructor Rachel Lee's intermediate architecture studio. 

This spring, students worked with the Lama Foundation to design a new communications center for the Lama community. The class client selected to move forward with a design by ENVD student Cecilia Alvarado. Alvarado's design is titled "Telecommunications: Lamas Paradox,"  a 400 square foot structure. 

"The proposed addition is somewhat of a beautiful paradox," Cecilia Alvarado said. " While Lama refrains from the connection to the outer world, the outer world has found its way in, and instead of fighting it, the modern times should be embraced."  

The final design was originally planned to be built during a six-week design-build studio this summer. 

"The hope is that we can break ground lat this summer and build the structure next summer," Jade Polizzi said. 

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In summer 2018, 12 Environmental Design students participated in our Medellín, Colombia Global Seminar, a six-week program abroad. It is a hands-on planning studio that collaborates directly with the community of Manantiales, helping to define, design and develop infrastructure projects that can be used to improve the quality of life in their community. The overall goal of the studio is for students to understand the potential impact of the project. Alongside students and faculty from the Facultad Arquitectura Universidad Nacional, ENVD students develop and refine their design skills to understand and work with members of a community in need. A faculty grant from the Office for Outreach and Engagement sponsored on-site work. 

An info session for the 2019 Medellín, Colombia Global Seminar will take place in ENVD 102 on October 18, at 5:30 p.m. 

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On Thursday, September 27, Emily Greenwood and her senior plant identification and design class traveled to Denver Botanic Gardens for a field trip. 

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On September 4, Professor Ping Xu and her landscape design and feng shui class held a site visit to Saint Malo's Chapel on the Rock in Allens Park, Colorado. The students visited the impact area of the 2013 debris flows that were initiated from MT Meeker, which is five miles away. 

On September 14, ENVD 4100, an architectural design studio, visited their project site at Mesa trail to learn about site selection and feng shui.  

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On September 7, students in ENVD 3100, a city planning studio, met with Rhys Duggan and Chris Wood, principals with Revesco Properties and the owners and developers of Elitch Gardens in downtown Denver. Views from the observation tower gave students a unique perspective for their class case study, which is the re-development of the Elitch Gardens site into a mixed-use neighborhood. Throughout the semester, student teams will prepare a master plan and apply their plan to solving an urban design problem.  

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On Friday, September 14, ENVD 3100 sections 011 and 012, taught by Assistant Professor Danielle Rivera and Lecturer Alana Wilson went on a site visit to the RiNo Art District in Denver. The classes walked through the community and met with Tracy Weil of the RiNo Art District. Students in these two sections of 3100 are tasked with creating a master plan and urban design for the RiNo Art District this semester.

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The weekend of September 7-9, Neal Evers’ 4100 architecture studio and Siobhan Brooks’ 4340 landscape architecture studio traveled to Santa Fe to visit , an immersive art experience produced by the artists’ collective and Game of Thrones creator George RR Martin. This semester they are lightly integrating and overlapping to design the proposed 90,000 square foot Meow Wolf coming to Denver in 2020. While in Santa Fe, they met with Meow Wolf’s Design Director Anthony Guida, to discuss Meow Wolf’s history, their creative process and plans for the Denver expansion. Students spent up to five hours in the exhibit exploring the underlying narrative, as well as the complex layout of “portals” that compose the exhibit.

After exploring Meow Wolf, students had the opportunity to visit , which was designed by in New York. This gave students a sharply contrasting museum experience.

Other visits included a local multidisciplinary design firm called . Kenneth Francis, one of Surrounding’s principals provided the students a tour of the office and the nearby Railyards park, which was designed by Ken Smith. Before heading back to Boulder, the students toured St. John’s College, which is listed as a site, because its master plan was developed by landscape architect and EDAW founder Garrett Eckbo.

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Each spring, Environmental Design offers praxis studios for third-year students, giving them experience in solving real-world problems by serving groups and organizations in Boulder and surrounding communities. This semester, students could choose from five different course options ranging from design-builds to infrastructure planning. Clients and community partners this year included Denver Botanic Gardens, the City of Globeville and the Ponderosa community in Boulder.

Instructor Jeremy Ehly and his praxis course have been working with Denver Botanic Gardens to design two separate mobile ticket centers for the York St. and Chatfield Farms locations. The class presented its final presentation to Denver Botanic Gardens on April 13, which included a virtual reality walk-thru for the client. 

“We could actually go inside the ticket booth and really get a sense,” said Brian Vogt, CEO of Denver Botanic Gardens. “I love the fact that they built a model so they could show what it would feel like to somebody working inside of it.” 

The design process started with over 100 different design concepts at the beginning of the semester. The goal was to not use any one design from one student, but to incorporate design concepts from the class as a whole. From there, the class narrowed it down by common features and themes to six ideas for client feedback.  

“Denver Botanic Gardens has been awesome at being incredibly clear and concise in making decisions about the project,” Ehly said. “And, what they’ve told us after every meeting is that we are outshining all the professional firms that they work with on a day-to-day basis. I think that is the highest compliment we could get.”

With any design and construction project comes budget constraints. For Ehly’s class, the students have been able to successfully keep their design-build within the budget Denver Botanic Gardens proposed, while also meeting and exceeding all of their expectations. 

“This time it stayed in budget,” Vogt said. “That has not always been my experience with architectural firms, and the students’ designs are really impressive. The level of detail they put into this (the mobile ticket centers) is quite remarkable.” 

Construction for the mobile ticket centers will take place during Maymester, in the Environmental Design Creative Labs at the Center for Innovation and Creativity building. Ehly claims, the experience students receive is comparable to a full-time job, for an intense three to four weeks. The public can expect to see the finished design on June 2. 

For Ethan Herrold, an ENVD junior specializing in architecture, the praxis studio is about the real-world experience while working with a high-profile client. Herrold states that all of his previous studio courses prepared him for this moment, and that he’s most excited for the building process.

“Seeing it come to fruition, and getting to say ‘hey I designed that shutter,’ and taking responsibility for something that’s built where millions of people can see it every year is pretty spectacular,” Herrold said. 

Denver Botanic Gardens also worked with instructor Emily Greenwood’s praxis studio this spring. The design challenge for her 15 undergraduate students was to “design and create a portable, self-contained, self-watering, self-powering vegetable garden intended to battle hunger and create micro-agri-economies in developing countries where water and fresh vegetables are scarce.”  The name of the design is called VITA. 

VITA is a modular, hexagonal system that is designed to grow vegetables and other plant varieties. It is specifically designed to adapt to different climates, as well as scenarios. Users can choose from three different sizes. The VITA design also features bee bungalows and light boxes. 

The ultimate goal for Vogt and Denver Botanic Gardens is to “save the world” with this new design and technology. 

“If we can figure out a cool design that you could really plunk down anywhere in world, we could put some seeds in the ground, aim it towards the sun and it would self-irrigate with water from the atmosphere,” Vogt said. “Then, you could come back a few weeks later and you have fresh vegetables. It’s amazing!” 

This week, Greenwood and her class will be holding a ribbon cutting ceremony for their design-build revealing at Denver Botanic Gardens. The unit will be installed near the Hive Garden Bistro. 

The event will be on Thursday, May 24 at 9 a.m. 

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