Why Park Hill Park's Next Chapter Is Being Designed Around Dry Ground

"Landscape that is not going to be sucking up water that isn't available." That is how Michael Van Valkenburgh described his approach to Park Hill Park when he spoke to neighbors at the city's October announcement, Front Porch reported.

Anyone who has walked the old golf course since the gate opened knows what he's talking about. The grass is mostly tan. The sprinklers are mostly broken. For a year, neighbors have been asking the city to water the place the way it waters City Park. The firm Denver just hired to design the permanent park is starting from a different idea. It won't try to bring back the green fairways. It plans to build around the dry ground that's already there.

That changes how to read the 155 acres this winter. The park isn't on hold. It's a rough first draft of the finished version.

The park as it stands this November

Park Hill Park opened to the public on October 28, 2025, and the city held a ribbon-cutting at the former Park Hill Golf Course site near East 35th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard. It's already the fourth-largest park in Denver, according to Denver7.

Here's what a visit looks like a year in:

• Access: The property is fenced, and the public enters through one gate, sunrise to sunset, per Denverite's July reporting.
• Paths: The walking routes are the old golf-course paths, and Denverite called them crumbling.
• Facilities: None yet. The park opened with walking paths and no facilities.
• Dogs: Denver's citywide park rules require dogs to be leashed and under physical control, and owners have to pick up after them.
• Interim amenities: Denver Parks and Recreation Executive Director Jolon Clark first proposed a disc golf course or a dog park for the summer of 2025. Neither had been built as of July, when Denverite reported the department was more than a year behind on those smaller play areas.

Plenty of people use it as is. Kevin Doyle has lived in Northeast Park Hill for more than 20 years, and his backyard borders the park. He described the regular traffic to Denver7 in August: "I see people jogging, I see bikers, I see moms with their babies. A lot of people walking their dog, and I even see families walking out here."

Why the grass is brown

Most of the old golf course's irrigation system no longer works. "The irrigation system is only partially operational within the park," parks department spokesperson Stephanie Figueroa told Denverite. "The majority of the system that controls the irrigation is heavily damaged due to years of vandalism and neglect prior to DPR taking over the site."

For now, the department is watering "select trees," picking up trash weekly, and stepping up mowing. Figueroa said there's no timeline for large-scale irrigation repairs because that work belongs to the capital project that will build the permanent park.

That's where the neighborhood's hopes and the design brief diverge. "They could be watering it just like they water City Park, but they're not," Doyle told Denverite. City Park is the model many east Denver residents picture. The designer's comments in October point to a park that leans much less on water than that.

The firm Denver picked, and what it said first

The city awarded the design contract solicitation to Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates on September 4, 2026. On October 13, Mayor Mike Johnston, Councilmember Shontel M. Lewis and Denver Parks and Recreation announced the firm publicly. The city's release lists the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago and Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York among MVVA's best-known projects. Front Porch reported that the firm has a Denver office and also designed the grounds of the George W. Bush Library.

According to the city, interest came from firms "from Europe to Australia." At the announcement, Van Valkenburgh spoke about the site's history. "There have been few opportunities to change a piece of land with its complicated history into something as positive and loved by everyone as we hope it will be," he said, as quoted in Front Porch. He also told neighbors that accessibility will be central to the plan.

His comment about water is the one that matters most for daily use. A design built around plants that need little water will look and feel different from a golf course, and different from City Park. The dry, open ground people walk across today is a reasonable preview of what MVVA has to work with. Based on what its founder said in October, that dry ground is also the firm's starting point.

The calendar from here to opening day

The planned parkland designation is the quietest item on that list, but it carries weight. Under the City Charter, designated parkland in Denver can't be sold or disposed of without voter approval, and it can only be used for park purposes or park-compatible uses. Once the designation is made, those protections apply to a site whose future was argued over for years. The city acquired the land in 2025 through a land exchange with Westside Investment Partners, and the release calls it the largest single acquisition of private property for an urban park in Denver's history.

What the money and the framework point to

The project has $70 million from the Vibrant Denver Bond, which voters approved in 2025. The design scope covers site preparation, drainage, walks, lighting, plantings, play and adventure areas, and related infrastructure.

The community's framework vision goes further. Sasaki's framework plan includes natural areas and stormwater features, sports fields and courts, playgrounds, a field house, a cultural hub built around the old clubhouse, and a multi-use loop. The project's own site, parkhillpark.org, notes that not every feature in the framework has confirmed funding. The framework drew 7,765 completed surveys and 5,930 open-response comments starting in April 2025.

Some close neighbors expect the bond to stretch less far. "The $70 million they got from the bond is only going to cover irrigation in some park paths," Doyle told Denverite, and he guessed a developed park might arrive "by 2030."

Councilmember Lewis framed the priorities when she welcomed the firm. "I want us to build a park that loves our elders back, a place where they feel at home in the neighborhood they helped build…while creating intentional spaces for our young people because this community loves its sports," she said, per Front Porch. She also said she hopes the bond money is spent intentionally. District 9 Councilmember Darrell Watson said in the city release that the park should reflect "the hopes of Park Hill neighbors and aspirations of northeast Denver."

Around the edges of the fence

The design work comes back to the community in 2027. The parkhillpark.org site lists no engagement events right now. In the meantime, a few nearby places and contacts are worth knowing:

1. Dahlia Campus for Health & Well-Being, at 35th Avenue and Dahlia Street. WellPower describes three acres of garden and farm space open to the community. It's a working example of growing things on this side of town.
2. The Holly Square shopping center on 33rd Avenue. In September, Denverite listed Blazing Chicken Shack, Mississippi Boy Catfish & Ribs and The Holly Market there.
3. Memorial trees. If you or someone you know planted a memorial tree on the course before the city owned it, Denver Parks and Recreation is asking to hear from you so those trees can be accounted for during the build-out. The Winston Downs Community Association posted the contact details.
4. Updates. The city runs a Park Hill Park newsletter and a Vibrant Denver Bond dashboard that tracks all 58 bond projects.

While the design work moves forward, Denver Parks and Recreation will keep maintaining the site and managing it as open space for the public.

A 155-acre park under construction three blocks away will change how a home near it is described and shown to buyers over the next few years. Ryan Haarer follows projects like Park Hill Park block by block and films what they look like at each stage. If you own near the old course and want to talk about how the 2027 design drafts and the 2029 opening affect your plans, book a consultation.