Stapleton's Northfield Ponds - Landscape Architecture, Ecology and Engineering

Northfield Ponds, a 35-acre park, is part of Denver's Stapleton Redevelopment Project, as a new mixed use `New Urbanist' community. Engineers originally conceived the site as a storm water detention and water quality facility with little enhancement beyond the typical concrete pipes and structures, erosion control, and proposed grass seeding. The proposed design opened the area to public use yet provided native plant and wetland habitat that would contribute to the area's natural resources. The facility is organized into three `cells' for storm water management and accommodates 1600 cfs of inflowing runoff from 460 acres of commercially developed land. A river delta typology for landforms and water courses, complete with meandering braided streams and droplet shaped islands of varying sizes, were proposed for the design. Forebays and drainage structures were designed as attractive architectural elements in the landscape. The `delta' design concept was emphasized and enhanced with the planting design of herbaceous and woody plant material native to the West's high plains. Plantings were carefully field located to follow mapped and observed groundwater contours so that plants will sustain themselves through droughts typical to the Denver area. Bioengineering practices where used on the downstream side of the forebays with the intent of spreading water across outlets to reduce the concentration of flows that would cause channelization of the run-off. Northfield Ponds is a successful example of blending the needs of storm water management with sustainable ecological goals, creating an aesthetic and useful passive park for users to observe urban wildlife.