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
Schools
Design Concepts
Helping Our Community Grow

We worked alongside these supporters for several years with continuing development on Lafayette Elementary’s garden as well as their three playgrounds. Recently, we began replacing raised flower beds in areas being reestablished.

Helping Our Community Grow

Playgrounds

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At 5,130 Feet, Another New School in Erie is Underway

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Last year we celebrated the groundbreaking for a new K8 school in Erie, Colorado for Boulder Valley School District.  This year, we’re celebrating the groundbreaking for another new PK8 school for St. Vrain School District.  This is a fast growing community and the competing school districts are busting at the seams to keep up with the influx of students.

Construction for the new PK-8 school started this spring with planned opening in fall 2018. The school location offers spectacular views of Longs Peak and the Indian Peaks.

Design of the school frames views towards Longs Peak. A specially designed “Surprise Area” offers a place for outdoor gathering inside a large quarter-circle plaza surrounded by a grass berm and shade trees.

Etched plaques representing the highest peaks on each continent will be embedded in the multi-colored decorative concrete plaza including:

  • Aconcagua – 22,841 feet
  • Denali – 20,310 feet
  • Elbrus – 18,510 feet
  • Everest – 29,029 feet
  • Gunnbjorn Fjeld – 12,119 feet
  • Puncak Jaya – 16,024 feet
  • Kilimanjaro – 19,341 feet
  • Kosciuszko – 7,310 feet
  • Longs Peak – 14,259 feet
  • Vinson Massif – 16,050 feet
  • Mont Blanc – 15,774 feet
  • Orizaba – 18,491 feet

And at the center of the plaza, the school’s elevation in Erie is included at 5,130 feet. Other site features include a tree-lined front entrance plaza with sandstone seating and gathering spaces, raised garden beds, a synthetic turf berm in the PK-K play area, and a stabilized-aggregate track and multipurpose field.

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The Making of a Whimsical Wisdom Tree

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Inspiration Playground Wisdom Tree Bellevue Washington inclusive play playground custom art sculpture 

It’s big, fantastical, otherworldly and whimsical!  And it’s designed to be the grand centerpiece in the imaginary fairytale-like setting of Inspiration Playground in Bellevue, Washington.  

This majestic fantasy-like tree is meticulously designed and meticulously fabricated collaboratively in the studios and workshops of Design Concepts and IDSculpture.

Loosely modeled from a giant cedar, the tree takes shape rising 24 feet tall high, with 10 and 12-foot spiraling gold branches, dotted with randomly placed light accents.

A Wise Old Face

Carving art and faces into trees is commonplace but always a great find when stumbled upon.  At Inspiration Playground, the face in the tree is artistically hand chiseled and carved. The face in the tree trunk is detailed and textured to look just like a subtly carved wood grain work of art, in this case, a wise old face.

Lights!

What’s a whimsical tree without dramatic detail using fanciful lighting?! 10 strings of 204 ‘live node’ lights wind and weave around the branches to create a sensational visual appeal. The LED lights are programmable with variable colors, pulsing and contrast intensity.  A light show can be programmed to complement events, holidays, theme or season. At night, it will glow and pulse creating a whimsical sculpture cutting through a dark sky.

Meticulous Detail

From initial sketches and concepts that were imagined and created in the design studio of Design Concepts, the innovators and fabricators at IDSculpture were able to turn a concept into a constructible reality.  Every detail of the tree has an artistic touch. From the tip of a spiral to the nose on the wise old face, both conceptualizer and fabricator alike took great care in each of the smallest of detail.

Structure

In the shop, the artists, craftsmen and fabricators of IDSculpture brought to life from the fantasy world of creative design and imagination.  The tree is made of a propriety mix of concrete, PVC, rebar and steel.  Solid cast concrete is topped with a hand sculpted topcoat layer—this is the medium to create the design texture and features of a realistic tree.  Its base is anchored over 5 feet deep into the ground with reinforced concrete.

In the end, from idea, detail, artist or master craftsman, every part of the design and fabrication process highlights great innovators, idea-generators and collaborators.  And this was only possible in the beginning when a great collaboration between the City of Bellevue and Rotary Club of Bellevue came to be.


All in all, the great majestic Whimsical Wisdom Tree comes to life today!

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BTD at Inspiration Playground: Canyon Boulders in a Playground!

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“Hey friends . . . We had a soggy and successful week up in Bellevue,” said Andy Dufford as he oversees the installation of the Canyon Boulders at Inspiration Playground.  Yes, it’s another piece of the play + art story that includes the Canyon Waterfall that will lightly sprinkle water between two pieces of a granite boulder.  Once a single form, the 5’ x 10’ boulder was sliced into large pieces—these are the canyon walls.  Inside the playground, children will walk or wheel between the canyon walls with water cascading down. Working with us on this piece of play art located within the interactive water play area, Chevo Studios conceptualized the canyon concept.  Fabrication required slicing the boulder in half lengthwise with a diamond wire saw, cutting 2.5’ of the end creating the flat base for the boulder to stand vertically.  Then the boulder’s halves were cut into quarters to form the sides of the waterfall element, with the remaining half forming the dry side of the canyon wall. Cutting of the boulders took place on an open workshop site, and are currently being installed on site as the playground takes shape on these wet winter days in Bellevue.

 

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BTD-Inspiration Playground: Artists at Work

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The collaboration between landscape architect and master artist is the storyline of this video.  In this Behind the Design story at Bellevue’s Inspiration Playground, we’re celebrating the artistry and master craftsmanship happening in an eclectic back alley of Denver’s National Western Complex neighborhood.  Here, in the emerging Rhino Art District, tucked among historic buildings, restaurants, studios, railyards, storage yards and stockyards, is the workshop of Chevo Studios.  Master stone artist and maestro of art that lives beautifully in its surroundings, Andy Dufford and his team are skillfully carving, cutting, grinding, hammering and fabricating massive boulders of sandstone and granite, soon-to-become the Water Play Table and Canyon Waterfall Boulders at Inspiration Playground.

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At Inspiration Playground, We’ve Got Stories to Tell!

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From Gestural Concepts to Easter Eggs, special features at Inspiration Playground have many Behind the Design stories to tell, and we’re gonna tell them all!

A Plethora of Special Features

There’s no shortage of fun design features for this extra-special inclusive playground. Inspiration Playground’s custom features have a life in the making with a conceptual process spanning five phases of implementation and creation:

  • First comes the idea. 
  • Second comes the client’s approval.
  • Third comes the final design and detailing.
  • Fourth comes fabrication.
  • Fifth comes installation.
  • Finally comes play time!

Inspired Collaborators

Some of the Behind the Design (BTD) stories revolve around the seriously talented team for the sculptural climbing features. These collaborations are reinventing outdated playgrounds and shaping them into dynamic, interactive and fantastical playworlds. The two firms of Design Concepts and ID Sculpture have worked together for years, changing the face of traditional playgrounds. 

At Inspiration Playground in Bellevue, Washington, this teaming is creating a playground full of life, both real and sculptural. With ID Sculpture’s collaborative brilliance in craftsmanship, artistic imagination, and cutting edge technologies, they’re using innovation and imagination in new ways. 

Upcoming Chapters

Currently under construction, Inspiration Playground is a story worth sharing.  We’re documenting and telling how things take shape on paper, and literally, on site.  Stay tuned . . . more BTD stories to come about Inspiration Playground’s special features:

Step-by-Step Process: From Gestural Concepts to Easter Eggs

  • A Design Process From No. 2 Pencil to Haptic Sculpting
  • Art in Stone
  • It’s in the Details: Art, Craftsmanship, Design Fidelity, Textural Nuances and More
  • Big Grand Themes
  • Technologies Make Features Reasonable Realities
  • Creativity Across Many Mediums
  • The Making of a Wisdom Tre

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).