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River Flow Inspires a Park's Motif
Basalt, Colorado
Basalt, Colorado, a historic town rooted in the Rocky Mountains, has a new outdoor venue. Situated near the town's main entrance along the Roaring Fork River, Basalt River Park serves as the area's primary gathering space. Site discussions in 2020 resulted in plans for a large expanse of turf with pathways circling around a custom bandshell and various play features. Local firm Connect One Design handled the landscape architecture, master planning, schematic design, design development, construction documents, and construction administration. Photo Credit: Lieutenant Aaron Much
The site contains 15,000 square feet of broom-finished concrete in red, light grey, and standard grey pigments that mimic the area's geologic colors. Amenities were specified in primarily blue tones, like round bistro tables and bistro chairs from the Landscape Forms Parc Centre line. Adirondack chairs are found in blue, turquoise, and navy in addition to seven light green, surface-mounted bike racks from mmcit?(C). All artificial rock formations were digitally fabricated from armature foam, encapsulated in a shell of glass fiber reinforced concrete, then hand-sculpted and painted.
The bandshell designed by ID Sculptures was influenced by the area's standing historic kilns that were built in 1884 to refine charcoal. A climbing wall along the back is comprised of artificial stone formations constructed on site.
Sportstuff?,,? supplied by Greenlawn Sod Co was specified for the Great Lawn due to its durability and relatively low water use. The project includes 5,891 square feet of 6-inch-thick standard concrete with fiber reinforcement. The three circular pedestrian paths consist of 13,760 square feet of standard grey crusher fines and a soil stabilizer to maintain the crusher fines' surfaces and enable occasional vehicle use.
Emulating a river eddy, a spiral layout of Feather Reed Grass (Calamagrostis brachytricha) was planted and topped with 3/4-inch to 1 1/2-inch pebbles to encourage grass growth. Local black, red, and white river cobble were then set in sand in a spiral pattern. The project called for 990 square feet of 4-inch to 8-inch decorative cobble inlay.
The design includes poured-in-place concrete curbs in the form of railroad tracks to represent the Colorado Midland Railway that was instrumental to the town's formation. A total of 477 linear feet of 12-inch-by-24-inch curbing was poured to provide tiered lawn seating, create claimable picnic zones, and provide ADA viewing access along the top tier.
Three different maple species - Sunset Warrenred (Acer truncatum x A. platanoides 'Warrenred'), State Street (Acer miyabei 'Morton'), and Celebration Freeman (Acer x freemanii 'Celebration') - create an autumn wash of red, rust, and gold foliage. Other plantings include two varieties of birch in the wetland area, three varieties of elm along the street, and Dwarf Potentilla (Potentilla canadensis) as a walkable ground cover.
A series of six basaltic uplift formations is paired with Koolfog misting elements and LED uplighting, with each formation taller than the next. Misting maintains low water-use goals while providing year-round play opportunities. Photo Credit: Elise Wolf
Along the river, four boat pullouts are formed by eddies created from prior boulder work mandated to stabilize the riverbanks. Behind the pullouts, the ground was minorly excavated to maintain flood levels and crusher fines were installed in compacted lifts. Approximately 140 orange-toned, 3-foot to 5-foot-long, rectilinear, flat-top rocks sourced by Rocky Mountain Custom Landscapes were placed around the site as scramble boulders, seating boulders, and steppers.
The extra-wide, concrete berm slide is the most-used park element by children of all ages.
The park includes five triangle shade sails measuring 24 feet and one sail measuring 12 feet attached to steel tube posts measuring 10-to-12 feet tall and 6 inches in diameter with 350 feet of string lighting.
The "Eddy Out" strategy directed the park's entire physical geometry, resulting in a design that looks as if an eddy spiraled up from the adjacent river to create the Great Lawn with smaller spirals and waves radiating out to produce additional activity areas.
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The visioning for Basalt River Park in Basalt, Colorado was millennia in the making. The spectacular Basalt Mountain geology, the energy of the Roaring Fork River, the presence of the Colorado Midland railway, the life-giving riparian ecosystem, and the beauty of native flora all distinctly define this place, and various park elements were chosen to represent these long histories, educate visitors, and reinvigorate a sense of town pride. During a 2020 master planning effort, Basalt residents repeatedly expressed a general lack of felt identity. The dispersal of activity nodes over the past 30 years had left the historic downtown core struggling to maintain retail, attract tourists year-round, and hold communal events. The Basalt River Park project kicked off right after the devastating 2018 Lake Christine Fire that shook the entire valley's sense of security. Afterwards, the town was determined to give the community an outdoor space to settle in and "be Basalt."
The Preliminaries
Local landscape architecture firm Connect One Design completed the master planning for the park and was subsequently contracted to complete schematic design, design development, construction documents, and construction administration through to completion.
The physical geometry of the park stems from a concept the design team affectionately calls "Eddy Out." Imagine the nearby Roaring Fork River charging down the valley, emerging from underneath the town's entry bridge, and spiraling up into the park in the form of an eddy. This metaphoric spiral creates the Great Lawn, defines the edge of the plaza, and swirls into the center, exclamation-marked by the bandshell. Divergent spirals and waves peel off the main eddy, creating secondary spaces for art, discovery, play, and respite. Thanks to residents' requests, numerous opportunities for dispersed play manifested into physical features that honor Basalt's history. The play features also achieved the goal that every element have more than one use and create joy for each user across a broad demographic spectrum.
Music in the Air
The iconic bandshell by ID Sculptures emulates historic charcoal kilns from the town's mining days and incorporates a bouldering wall in its construction. Every Wednesday during the summer, bands take the stage and the up-lit structure becomes the focal point for music and festivities long past sunset. On non-concert days, when a relaxing hum returns, rocking Adirondak chairs in a spattering of blues inhabit the bandshell, allowing individuals and small groups to enjoy the river, take shade, and even host a yoga session or fencing practice.
Keeping Cool
Having seen pop-jet fountains succeed in surrounding areas, town leadership longed to have a similar water feature in Basalt River Park; however, the town had also recently signed a Declaration of Climate Emergency. As a solution, the designers specified a series of six low-water-use misting features from Koolfog combined with faux basaltic uplift formations. This construction is estimated to use only 63% of the water for a pop-jet fountain while adding to visitor comfort on high solar exposure days. The uplift rock formations in the water features were inspired by natural geologic shapes in Basalt Mountain - the town's namesake. Misters are controlled by an hourly timer or an on-demand button, which allows kids to discover the exciting ability to take charge of the feature. The series grows increasingly taller along an arched path through the plaza, allowing kids to jump from one feature to the other, chasing the mist as it plumes from the base of the uplifts.
Hardscape Considerations
Basalt's geology also informed the colors of the concrete used in the arching plaza, including dark grey/black, red, and light grey/white. Locally sourced cobbles in these colors were sand-set in installments shaped like eddies and in the gabion walls of the bus shelter and bathroom building.
Taking a Break
Pops of blue furniture are scattered throughout the plaza. Moveable bistro tables and chairs, rocking chairs, and Adirondack chairs host a range of uses and allow user flexibility. Seating in the hardscape plaza gives people who aren't ready to fully commit to the park experience a chance to dabble around its edges, people-watch, engage slowly, and let the enticing familiarity of the park eventually pull them in.
Elegances of Nature
The park's planting design aims to bring local, low-water-use plants into view and inspire visitors to add these colors, flowers, or textures to their own montane garden. The plaza hardscape is softened by a bosque of maple trees. Sunset Warrenred (Acer truncatum x A. platanoides 'Warrenred'), State Street (Acer miyabei 'Morton'), and Celebration Freeman (Acer x freemanii 'Celzam') maple varieties were selected to highlight the different fall color in each one. The maples were planted by species from one side of the park to the other so that the canopy of leaves washes from ruby to rust to gold. A single Scarlet Oak (Quercus coccinea) tree centered in an engineered, wood fiber circle will one day fulfill the long-term vision for a climbable tree. Willow forts, hand-planted and woven by the town arborist, integrate the adjacent protected wetlands and riparian ecosystem into the park's vernacular. Swirls of monoculture Reed Grass (Calamagrostis brachytricha) punctuate the Eddy Out movements, with autumn seed heads that are struck golden in the late afternoon light.
Additional Features
Shade sail structures were installed in the plaza to create instant shade while waiting for the trees to mature. String lighting weaves between posts, creating a pedestrian-scaled canopy of twinkling lights. Slack lines, a hammock, and a wildly popular, extra-wide concrete berm slide entertain users of all ages year-round. A complete signage package was also produced for the park design, including metal and graphic wayfinding signs as well as small discovery placards complete with short stories from Basalt's history in both English and Spanish.
Observable Accomplishments
The design team set out to craft a park that is valued by the community and welcoming to users of all abilities. Already, visitors have been seen meditating along the rocky riverbank, learning to fly-fish, framing the river in memorable wedding photos, making the space their own by arranging the moveable furniture, enjoying lunch peacefully on the plaza periphery, and connecting to other trails via bicycles. And, of course, the dogs are its number one fans! Since completion, the bandshell hosted its inaugural Summer Concert Series that increased park visitation seven-fold. The weekly Sunday Farmers Market now takes place in the park, taking advantage of the arc around the lawn to conveniently space out vendor tents. Whether facilitating a community event or a peaceful dip in the river, Basalt Park represents a youthful revitalization of an old mining town.
