Intro
Over the years, the City and County of Denver's Community Planning and Development Department created an initiative to increase green space to underserved areas. As a result, Denver's first pop-up park emerged. With a tight deadline, the City leaned on CU Denver students to design and build the park gateways. Twenty-one undergraduate students from the College of Architecture and Planning and Inworks designed, fabricated, and installed two entry gateways over a period of three weeks. The park, which spans an entire city block on 21st Street, was coined “The Square on 21st.”

Parametric Design
The park’s name is reflected in the composition of the gateway structures. The parametric design, comprised of sequential rotating squares, creates a dynamic effect that draws people into the park. Twenty-one independently constructed ribs rotate over a 30-degree axis. A stunning optical illusion of a shrinking tunnel visually appears because the inside square rotates at a different degree than the outside square. The gateways were installed in one afternoon and were only meant to be on public display for two months; however, the city has already received several requests for the gateways to be relocated to other local parks once the pop-up park closes.

Design-Build
The students were part of a “Maymester” design-build course. The experience of design-build exposes students to real-world clients, budgets, and timelines. Students are challenged to respond with solutions to design and construction issues that manifest on-site. Design-build gives students a high-impact educational experience where they feel proud to see their conceptual drawings on paper materialize.

Partnership
The project marks the first local design-build project that CU Denver has completed for the City and County of Denver. The collaboration can be seen as a prime example of how cities and universities can work together to create a positive impact in their communities.

The Pop-up Park
Over the two-month summer period, the public park will host movie nights, concerts, festivals, and more. A fenced dog park fulfills the neighborhood need for an outdoor dog play space and helps support clean streets. Denverites are able to lounge in outdoor seating with family and friends, and can eat and drink from food trucks that service the park.

​

Casey, Chris. “CU DENVER TODAY” Website Homepage Feature Story. Maymester class designs and builds entryways for Square on 21st, a collaboration with City of Denver. July 5, 2017.