RIVERDALE ANIMAL SHELTER

ADAMS COUNTY, COLORADO

The new Riverdale Animal Shelter is to be inserted within a portion of the Platte River floodplain located north of Denver, and is part of the developing Adam’s County Regional Park. The site has a complex history that includes gravel mining and agriculture. With consideration for that history, this project shapes the landscape as a place of enhanced habitats, education and community events, in addition to typical animal shelter programs. The planting strategy reveals a series of transitional landscapes and ecologies as the site slopes from the developed upland bluff, to agriculture and ponds, down to the river. The design purposefully inscribes transitions and ledges in the landscape through the integration of drainage swales and ponds for stormwater detention. The intent is to integrate the project within the larger park master plan and its context, with the ultimate purpose of creating a meaningful sense of place where the shelter exists as an expansion of the Platte River habitat. This project is in collaboration with Adams County and G Squared Design.