Entrepreneurial American Community Award

For their role in strengthening Denver’s public elementary schools and their surrounding neighborhoods by designing new multi-dimensional school playgrounds.

Looking for a way to connect her classroom to the surrounding community, landscape architecture professor Lois A. Brink turned to a dilapidated elementary school playground on which her own children once played. Professor Brink challenged her graduate students to rethink Bromwell Elementary’s outdoor space and guide its total renovation. This initial project jump-started a city-wide playground restoration project that is now responsible for transforming nearly sixty percent of Denver Public School’s neglected playgrounds into urban neighborhood parks. Learning Landscapes has grown to become one of the most vital resources within Denver for neighborhood beautification and enhanced livability.

The rundown condition of Bromwell Elementary’s playground was not unique within the Denver school system. Dozens of other schools throughout the city endured insufficient recreational opportunities for students resulting in diminished health and restlessness in the classroom. The city’s youth needed places to play and local residents needed more flexible spaces. Learning Landscapes stepped in to meet those needs. The organization’s efforts provide students with vital physical activity while improving the overall quality of life in predominately disadvantaged communities within Denver. The renovations to the city’s schoolyards by Professor Brink’s graduate students and other volunteers provide urban neighborhoods with additional multi-use green space, central community meeting areas, and the perfect setting for students to learn about healthy living and nutrition.

Created as a partnership between the University of Colorado Denver’s College of Architecture and Design and Denver Public Schools, Learning Landscapes also works with and receives support from a variety of interests including the city, foundations, the school district and community organizations. Collaboration between these groups and other Denver organizations such as the Department of Housing and Neighborhood Development and the Gates Family Foundation allows for a holistic approach to playground restoration that encourages community participation and takes local needs into account.

In order to more effectively include residents of marginalized neighborhoods, Learning Landscapes launched a community outreach program in 2007.  This program works to identify barriers to the use of playgrounds, develop solutions, secure funding for neighborhood improvements and provide resources for residents to solve local problems. Learning Landscapes also provides technical assistance to neighborhood associations, community members and other nonprofit organizations. Through such programs and collaborations, Learning Landscapes has now transformed over fifty neglected playgrounds into prized community assets within Denver and is nationally recognized as one of the most successful initiatives for community-based planning, design and building of public-school playgrounds.

For more information: Learning Landscapes