President’s Award of Excellence – Platte Farm Open Space

Valerian received the highest of honors last week at the 2023 ASLA Colorado Award ceremony for Platte Farm Open Space: From Brownfield to Community Asset. This project was awarded the President’s Award of Excellence in Urban Design, with special recognition for exemplary diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. The President’s Award of Excellence is presented to recognize the highest contribution to the advancement of the profession of Landscape Architecture , which exemplifies the ethics upon which the profession was founded. Our entire team is the reason Platte Farm Open Space was recognized as such an extraordinary project! A huge thank you to all of you.

Platte Farm Open Space, a 5.5-acre parcel that was once contaminated land, a dumping ground for industrial waste and trash, is now a thriving community space that comes alive each spring with mixed native grasses, wildflowers, trees, and pollinator gardens.

It has now been three years since the completion of the installation. The residents have shared that people are using the trails daily, children are playing and riding bikes, and many enjoy the colorful pollinator gardens. Today, there are planning and design efforts underway for future connections to the site and internal to the site. Future efforts include directly connecting this parcel to Argo Park which is bisected by the railroad tracks directly to the south. This will connect to a future greenway that will cross the South Platte River to the National Western Center, connecting Globeville to Denver.

What began as urban blight now shines in Globeville as a beacon of what can be possible when communities come together to reimagine a new future for their neighborhood.

Follow the link to see more of Platte Farm Open Space: From Brownfield to Community Asset at ASLA Colorado.