YOUTH ART PARK

Location: Carbondale, Colorado

Program: Park and trail design, community engagement, integrated play features, amphitheater, sculpture, and circulation design

Client: Carbondale Arts, Town of Carbondale, Roaring Fork Transportation Authority

The Carbondale Youth Art Park was designed to provide a fresh approach to integrated play and creativity for residents and visitors of the community. Located in the Carbondale’s downtown core, the linear park is intended to revitalize space previously left vacant within a rails-to-trails right of way. The project will also provide a vital link between the historic downtown/civic center areas and new mixed-use developments as part of the upcoming Downtown North project.  

As a project that began prior to COVID, but extended into the pandemic, the RE:LAND team was challenged to dream big during concept development in order to provide a site where people of all ages and backgrounds can safely gather in a multi-functional, creative environment. As a result, a dynamic site was designed to offer outdoor classroom and performance space, climbing and creative play (otherwise known as “p-art-kour” adventure play), sculptural installations, and a comm(Unity) Sculpture. As a gateway between Downtown and future mixed-use neighborhoods, the Unity Sculpture will provide a canvas for highschoolers to regularly repaint and reimagine as a storyboard to share their local experiences, challenges, and dreams.