The Park at Arapahoe Fairgrounds Celebrates Grand Opening and Block Party
Lafayette, Colorado...June 25, 2016 ⎯ Design Concepts, an award-winning community and landscape architecture firm, is celebrating the grand opening of The Park at Arapahoe Fairgrounds and providing guided walking tours and sharing ‘Behind the Design’ stories of the new park.
The 110-acre park is a new feature at Arapahoe County Fairgrounds and Park. The phase 1 offers many new amenities including a new main entrance to the park and fairgrounds, a central green with walkways and a plaza and picnic shelter, multi-use fields, nature play area, accessible loop path, natural surface trails, and water features including two ponds and a naturally meandering stream play area.
The Park Design
The theme of the park design focuses on three central concepts including nature play, interpreting the history and heritage of the region, and 21st concepts of fairgrounds of the future.
Nature Play
The initial concept of the park was to blend the worlds of suburban parks with fairground activities and where the two meet, ‘nature play’ occurs. A primary goal in nature play is to bring kids back to nature.
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. Within the park, there are numerous opportunities provided to encourage that interaction.
Honoring the Heritage of the High Plains Prairie Homestead
Another initiative was to interpret the history of the region and its natural areas. The design of the park honors the history and heritage of the original homesteaders who farmed and ranched the regional high plains. This area of abundant opportunity also came with unique challenges including a variety of harsh weather—occasions of drought, seasons of blistering heat to freezing temperatures, and open prairie lands offering little protection from harsh winds. The park takes cues from this environment and its rich history by interweaving cues of this story.
21st Century Fairgrounds
The fairground aspect of the site includes all the facilities needed for major fair events: rodeo and riding arenas, exhibition spaces, a midway, RV and trailer accommodations, and flexible events buildings. Blending a park with a fairground facility opens up a new interpretation for the 21st century fairgrounds. Year-round space is now available, not just when programmed events are occurring. The new parade grounds and center green create a much broader multi-use space for existing and new events including dog shows, festivals and more.
Behind the Design Stories
The varieties of ‘Behind the Design’ stories are being told during grand opening celebrations on June 25 from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. Design team members including Axel Bishop and Erik Spring will host walking tours during the celebrations. A self-guided ‘Walking Touring’ brochure has been developed by the firm and shows the many features of the phase 1 project. The variety of Behind the Design stories include the following:
- History and heritage of regional high plains homesteaders
- Controlling water
- Beauty of the utilitarian farm: Forebay sedimentation basin. Not your standard drainage chase.
- Contouring the land
- Jackleg / buck & rail fencing
- Windmills
- Archeology find
- Natural play
- Native seeding / seeding native
- Formal and organic landscapes
- The central plaza
- A shade structure influenced by the chicken coop
- Designing rust into the landscape – shed roof, gabion metal, gooseneck light fixtures
- Native yuccas living in the pristine prairie meadow
- Bring back the cattails
- The quiet serene on the west side and its hidden history finds
- Controlling the flow of vehicles
- From the peak of the park ... you can see both Pikes Peak & Longs Peak
- ‘Farmer Ben’s’ corn rows
- Plans for the future – phase 2 and beyond
- Box canyon
- All about logs: stepping logs, log crossings, log fences, chases and more
- Water vault
- Cap rock
- Walk the ridgeline
- Watch the difference of plant growth on north facing vs. south facing hills along the ridgeline
- Importance of water – bringing it back on the site + the story of the stream + wells
- 21st century fairgrounds
- Designing for the wind
- Trails
- Seasonal plant stories
About Design Concepts
Founded in 1981, Design Concepts is in its 35th year providing thoughtful, innovative and dynamic designs for public and private spaces. Design Concepts is nationally recognized as a leader creating and re-imagining spaces that embrace community gathering, recreation and play, connections to nature, and a focus on the environment. They continue to innovate healthy communities, learning landscapes and entertaining outdoor community places. The firm’s current work includes a variety of learning landscapes, destination parks, projects plugging ‘nature into play,’ inclusive playgrounds, new recreation amenities, and planning for communities.
