The Westwood neighborhood of Denver is one of the most park-deprived areas in the City. Conceived by Stream as Westwood’s “Front Porch” perched on a hilltop and overlooking the City, the design for Cuatro Vientos Park capitalizes on the site’s spectacular views of the Denver skyline and Longs Peak while providing a vibrant and active community open space with a unique playground, interactive water feature, turf activity areas, a picnic shelter, and nearly 60 new trees. Stream worked closely with local residents, community advocacy groups, neighborhood organizations, and Denver Parks and Recreation staff to create a powerful coalition dedicated to making the park an important oasis for all of the members of the diverse Westwood neighborhood. As Cuatro Vientos is the first new park developed in the Westwood area in more than 30 years, the park fulfills the vision of a place where families can gather, recreate and enjoy the views -- but more importantly, is a source of pride for the community by celebrating people of all ages and cultures.
The site is relatively small (one and a half acres), and had development challenges due to steep slopes and adjacency to a busy arterial street (Alameda Avenue). Despite the challenging site conditions, the community voiced its opinion, that the park needed to provide a very extensive variety of amenities and park elements including soccer, basketball, walking paths, picnic areas, skateboarding features, a special playground, and a water play area (rarely included in Denver’s neighborhood parks). In response to the community’s input and the Parks Departments’ goals, the design team worked to integrate a great variety of uses and amenities within a space smaller than a regulation soccer field, while also fulfilling an important desire of the community for the park to serve as a communal meeting venue.
Stream led a highly interactive and dynamic public involvement process which ultimately earned the Colorado Chapter of the American Planning Association’s (APA) 2013 Award for Outstanding Public Process. The project has also been mentioned in a “firms of the Rocky Mountain Region profile” in Landscape Architecture Specifier for the 2014 ASLA conference.