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Project Highlight: Multi-family Community Pool Area Renovations

As the Denver metro area continues to grow in population and our real estate market experiences growing pains, many existing multi-family housing properties have become golden opportunities for renovation and renewal. Here at Outdoor Design Group, we have recently been contracted by several clients to not only bring a fresh look to these common area landscapes, but to incorporate various outdoor amenities and create an extension of usable outdoor living space.

A couple of notable landscape renovations we have been fortunate enough to design were two properties owned by a California real estate company. They appointed us to help redesign the landscape to compliment their building renovations, giving each outdated property a much needed face lift.

The first property, located in Federal Heights, Colorado, is a large complex comprising of several units and a separate leasing and fitness center building. The leasing and fitness center was to be completely remodeled, and the entrance reconfigured. Our landscape design incorporates hardscaping like retaining walls and unique paving surfaces that compliment the updated architecture, and guide users toward the new entrance. Additionally, the numerous low-water plant species were selected and placed throughout the beds to create interest with their distinctive structural forms and colorful habits, which molded with the new modern style the client was striving toward.

 

A 3D rendering of the modern style entrance landscape helped our client to better visualize the space.

 

Attached to the East side of the leasing and fitness center is the community pool area, which was also overdue for a fresh look. In our design, the existing pool was to remain as is, but the surrounding pool deck was modified to be larger with a sleek, colored pool deck coating. A striking modern style gas fireplace was incorporated at the west end and amenities like shade structures, grilling stations, LED landscape lighting and picnic tables provide the finishing touches on the new design.

 

Original concept design.

 

Digital rendering of the final design.

 

The second multi-family property Outdoor Design Group provided landscape design services for is located in Lakewood, Colorado. Its existing pool area was drab and outdated with no extra amenities. Our design integrated a large turf area for games, outdoor kitchen with a pergola, and a gas fire pit, all alongside a brand new decked out pool house designed by a Phoenix based architecture firm. The large bi-fold doors were designed to fully open toward the pool, and create effortless indoor/outdoor living. We welcomed the opportunity to design a space that allowed us to really visualize and get excited about how the space would be used. Additionally, the low-water use plantings surrounding the pool were chosen to provide year-round interest as well as screening from the nearby road.

 

Concept design.

 

Construction on these projects is currently underway, and we can’t wait to see the final results! Multi-family housing projects, both new development and site renovations are a hot commodity here in Denver, and the demand is ever increasing. We love being involved on projects like these, and we look forward to more to come.

This is the official blog of Outdoor Design Group, Colorado Landscape Architects. For more information about our business and our services, click here.

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Spring Planted Flower Bulbs Provide Bright Flowers in Summer

Whether you’re an experienced or an inexperienced gardener, you’re probably aware of fall planted flowering bulbs. Tulips, daffodils, crocus, alliums, hyacinth and other “fall planted/spring blooming bulbs” have become very iconic harbingers of the advent of spring season. However, there’s a large assortment of flowering bulbs that make a spring-time appearance in garden retail stores, providing their own form of welcoming the passing of winter and the arrival of a new gardening season. The so-called spring planted flower bulbs may be lesser known to the novice gardener, but can be almost as valuable as the fall planted bulbs. These summer blooming plants can be used to place spots of color in-between perennials and shrubs in your landscape. Planted in Spring, these bulbs emerge to provide beautiful flowers throughout summer and fall, with exact flowering times varying per species and cultivar.

In fact, the spring planted bulbs are not all true bulbs. Some may be corms, rhizomes or tubers, which are all different types of storage organs that plants have evolved over time. It is these clever little storage devices that have allowed people to dig them up during plant dormancy, and package them up to be shipped to garden center stores around the world. Some of the spring planted bulbs are perennials, but most are not, at least in the USDA hardiness zone that Denver finds itself in.

Crocosmia corms.

Out of the many types of spring planted ornamental bulbous plants available in your local garden center, I cover three common types here in this post.

Perhaps the best known spring planted bulb is the gladiolus, which hails from South Africa. Botanists consider the gladioli to actually be corms, not true bulbs. Corms are underground plant stems that function as storage organs, whereas true bulbs are underground storage organs made up of layers of fleshy modified leaves. Most gladioli are hardy only to zone 8, which makes them annuals in Colorado. But there are some gladioli that are hardy to zone 5, if well mulched in winter. Gladioli come in many colors and sport bright blooms on upright stems with strap-like leaves.

Like the “glads”, dahlias are another very popular summer bloom that is not hardy in Colorado. Dahlias are placed in the spring planted bulb category because they form tuberous roots which are dried and then sold. The pre-cultivar dahlias are native to Mexico. There tubers were used as a food crop by the Aztecs. The trick to buying dahlias in dry form is that they must have a stem attached to the tubers, because only the stems produce buds, which then produce stems and flowers. There is a huge variety of dahlia cultivars to be found in garden centers. In springtime, the dahlia tubers are sold in bags along with the other spring planted bulbs. But in summer it is common to see the dahlias sold as potted plants. Buying them as tubers is cheaper than as potted plants. Because the dahlias are hardy only to zone 8, if you want them to return to your yard next summer you must save the tubers (with a bit of the stems attached)  in a cool but not freezing space, to be replanted in a successive season. Or simply just buy new ones each spring. Dahlias are popular because the blooms come in a multitude of shapes, colors and sizes. If you’ve never seen a 12 inch wide “dinner plate” dahlia flower in bloom, you are missing out on a fascinating sight.

Canna Lilies are another spring planted “bulb” that bring an air of the tropics to your landscape.  These flowering plants are often used in annual pots, providing tall, colorful focal points in the center surrounded by lower annuals. Cannas are native to Latin America and are grown as annuals in Denver’s hardiness zone of 5. But if you find the right micro-climate, they may over-winter just fine. I know of one house in Denver, where cannas are planted at the base of a south facing wall on a house, and have become perennial in this residential landscape due to this warm micro-climate spot. Cannas are not true bulbs, but are “rhizomatous.” A rhizome is an underground horizontal stem that can send out shoots and roots from nodes. A ginger “root” is an example of a rhizome that you’ll find in a produce section. Cannas are closely related to ginger and also bananas! Another familiar rhizomatous plant are irises, which have above ground rhizomes. Although canna lilies are often available as potted plants throughout summer, if you purchase them as rhizomes in spring, you get the plants for a fraction of the cost of potted ones. As mentioned previously, cannas develop tropical-like flowers and leaves, giving your patio an island vibe.

Canna rhizomes.

Head on down to your local garden center this spring gardening season and pick up some spring planted bulbs to brighten your landscape this summer!

This is the official blog of Outdoor Design Group, Colorado Landscape Architects.  For more information about our business and our services, click here.

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Project Highlight: The Gardens at Columbine Memory Care

Located in Littleton, Colorado, The Gardens at Columbine is a memory care/assisted living facility on which Outdoor Design Group provided landscape design services. This site was an expansion of an existing assisted living facility onto adjacent property. This new building provides a space for adding memory care services to the facility’s roster of other existing services for senior citizens.

As the new building was being planned for this recently acquired property, we designed the outdoor spaces, walkways and landscaped gardens to surround this new structure. Because the site was not terribly large, and the proposed building sizable in scope, this provided several challenges. From how to fit parking spaces into a small space to designing safe and sound emergency exit pathways, this project was a challenging but satisfying endeavor.

One of the first challenges we had to face was how to provide a working landscape at the east entrance to the building. This entrance is near the other existing building, and is the preferred access point for employees traveling between buildings. The difficulty here was adding an entrance walkway that would transition from a higher elevation parking lot then drop down to a doorway that sits slightly below grade relative to the parking lot. Retaining walls were necessary in this area so we added built in benches at the walls to provide useful amenities along this path. Step lights in the walls provide a soft illumination for this well used pathway.

Prior to construction, the original site was filled with trees, as it had been a large lot with one single family home on it. While some of the existing trees could not be saved due to the scope of the proposed building, we worked with the city and the owner to save as many trees as we could. For example we spent a significant time working and re-working the landscape plan with the civil engineer on the project to reconfigure the entrance drive and parking areas to save several existing trees on the north and east sides of the property.

The namesake gardens are located in the internal courtyard of the project. These outdoor spaces give residents of the facility a charming scene that invites them to go outside and get some fresh air amid the trees, shrubs and raised bed gardens.

Stepping out of the building and into the courtyard, the first of the raised planting beds one encounters is a large circle comprised of  a poured-in-place concrete seat wall that is chock full of colorful perennials, wispy ornamental grasses, low growing shrubs and scraggy boulders.

As you step further into the courtyard, you encounter wooden raised bed gardens where residents of the facility can indulge their gardening bug and get their hands dirty in the soil. These two beds are situated on opposite sides of the courtyard, connected by a concrete walk where the residents can circumnavigate to achieve fresh air and exercise, ensconced in the protective calm of these hidden gardens.

This is the official blog of Outdoor Design Group, Colorado Landscape Architects.  For more information about our business and our services, click here.

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Photos of the Day: Early Spring Blooms at the Denver Botanic Gardens

A visit to the Denver Botanic Gardens has revealed that the first signs of spring are making their presence known. As we have been experiencing a recent warm spell here in the Denver area, I decided to check out the Gardens to see what might be blooming. Sure enough, there were many bulbs and some shrubs that were taking advantage of the balmy weather to burst forth in bloom.

Below are just a small sampling of what’s flowering now at the Gardens:

Clockwise from left: Witchhazel; Snowdrops; Hellebores

Clockwise from left: Dwarf Iris in Partridge Feather; Dwarf Iris with Crocus and Agave; Winter Aconite

 

This is the official blog of Outdoor Design Group, Colorado Landscape Architects.  For more information about our business and our services, click here.

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Ban Evergreen Trees… from Urban Areas in Colorado?

When it comes to trees in designed landscapes in Colorado, landscape architects and designers don’t have very many species to choose from. With that being said, it might seem heretical to propose that the list of trees to pick from be restricted even further. Specifically, I advocate that large evergreen trees NOT be planted in dense urban areas that experience cold winters, unless they are sufficiently distant from walks and streets located north of such evergreens.

The shadows that large evergreen trees cast can help foster ice patches on walks and roads, compromising the safety and welfare of those who utilize these areas to travel about our towns and cities. If we are going to encourage biking and walking to ease automobile congestion and alleviate environmental impacts, having the safest travel routes we can achieve is a noble goal.

It may be surprising to those who don’t work in the landscape, architecture or planning fields, but many municipalities require that a certain number or percentage of the trees on a landscape plan be evergreen trees. Sometimes these arbitrary requirements restrict designers and architects to squeeze these large winter-shading ice patch-makers into a site where it might be best to avoid them. However, I should mention that some municipalities that I’ve worked with do acknowledge the problem of winter shading from evergreen trees, and they do have instructions in their landscape codes to locate proposed large evergreens away from walks and roads that would be shaded by those evergreens.

I first became aware of the problem of evergreen shadow ice patches as an urban bike commuter in the Denver area. It is frustrating at best, and rather dangerous at worst to encounter a patch of ice on a street during winter time. I have found that often times when biking in the Denver area in winter, the majority of streets can be clear of ice, except for those areas shaded by evergreens that are located just south of walks and streets. But it is not just bikers that would benefit from restricting evergreen trees in urban areas. Walkers and runners would also have an improved level of travel safety due to less icing of their pathways.

An ice patch on a Denver street, from the shadow of a large evergreen tree.

Because the foliage canopy of pine, spruce and fir trees does not drop during winter, melting of snow and ice via solar gain is limited. Deciduous trees, which drop their leaves and allow more sunlight to reach walks and streets, are a better choice in place of evergreens. I acknowledge that evergreen trees are often used for landscape screening. But I question whether this screening is worth it when considering their impact to roads and walks during winter.

Another impact from lost solar gain due to evergreen tree shading is on homes and other buildings. A building that sits in the winter shadow of a large evergreen tree will miss out on solar warmth during a sunny Colorado winter day.

I do realize that in dense urban areas, it’s not just trees that can shade our streets and sidewalks. People need shelter and workspaces, and some of those structures could end up shading streets and cause ice patches. But residents don’t need evergreen trees on their urban lot. I advocate for trees to create shade in summer, visual interest in all seasons, and wildlife habitat. But the choice of tree in tight urban quarters needs to be considered carefully.

Despite the tongue in cheek title of this blog post, evergreen trees can be a wonderful addition to the landscape. I am not actually asking for evergreen trees to be banned from urban areas of Colorado. However it does seem best that in dense urban areas that experience cold winter weather, we should consider restricting evergreen trees to parks and large lots, away from streets and sidewalks where their winter shade will not cause icy travel dangers for walkers, bikers and even cars.

This is the official blog of Outdoor Design Group, Colorado Landscape Architects.  For more information about our business and our services, click here.

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