Traverse Park

LOCATION: Fort Collins, CO
CLIENT: City of Fort Collins
BUDGET: $2 MILLION
ESTIMATED COMPLETION: Summer 2021
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT: City of Fort Collins Park Planning & Development

Concept: “Existing” Wall

Concept: Interventions

Interventions

Activity details.

Site Plan

Showing the wall ‘spine’ that organizes the architecture. Overall park design and renderings completed by City of Fort Collins Park Planning & Development.

Park Center

Aerial view of park looking south. Overall park design and renderings completed by City of Fort Collins Park Planning & Development.

Aerial Looking East

Overall park design and renderings completed by City of Fort Collins Park Planning & Development.

Playground Area and Tower

With circulation path breaking the line of the wall. Overall park design and renderings completed by City of Fort Collins Park Planning & Development.

Activity Deck

Supported by wall remnant, with picnic shelter visible in background. Overall park design and renderings completed by City of Fort Collins Park Planning & Development.

Playground Area

With low portions of the wall forming exploration and play structures. Overall park design and renderings completed by City of Fort Collins Park Planning & Development.

Public Meeting #2

Second of three public presentations and feedback sessions led by City of Fort Collins Park Planning & Development. Photos courtesy of City of Fort Collins.

Picnic Shelter and Restroom Design Intent

With ‘existing’ wall as a base.

Construction Documents

Documenting the restroom block.

Picnic Shelter

Showing integration with ‘existing’ wall. Overall park design and renderings completed by City of Fort Collins Park Planning & Development.

Maintenance Shed

Variation one of two prototypes, showing attachment to ‘existing’ wall.

Precast Concrete Pattern Studies

“we imagined a wall that might have been a forgotten component of the site’s agricultural history. New interventions adapt this “existing” spine to a variety of uses and activities. ”

Designed in collaboration with City of Fort Collins Park Planning & Development. [au]workshop was responsible for designing and organizing the architectural features of the site, while Park Planning & Development staff completed the overall park programming, design and community outreach.

Our concept for the architectural component of this new neighborhood park began by elaborating on the site’s history. To complement a row of existing mature trees from the disused Hartshorn Tree Farm, we imagined a wall that might have been another forgotten component of the site’s agricultural history. Varying in height and configuration, this wall weaves through the existing trees, eroded with age in some places.

We designed new interventions around this organizational spine, adapting it to a variety of uses and activities. The wall forms the base of new structures, including a picnic shelter, restrooms, a maintenance shed, and an overlook tower that provides views of Longs Peak. In other areas the interventions are more subtle: child-size holes cut in the wall for exploration, steps up to use the wall as a balance beam, or provisions for places to sit. In some places the wall is invisible and only implied; in other places it is broken or cut through for these new uses.

An extensive public feedback process, led by the Park Planning & Development team, engaged the neighborhood and larger community with these ideas, refining and tailoring both the organization and the activities themselves to the needs of its users.

ARCHITECTS + URBANISTS

Traverse Park