Government officials and community members recently celebrated the opening of Denver’s newest regional park. Carpio-Sanguinette Park & Heron Pond Open Space has been restored and enhanced with park amenities, playgrounds, new trees, planting, stormwater infrastructure improvements and more. The new 80-acre nature park in Denver’s Globeville neighborhood reclaims former industrial land along the South Platte River for recreation, community gathering, habitat, and stormwater management.
Globeville community members gathered to celebrate the new chapter for a park shaped by decades of industrial use and contamination. More than three decades after environmental cleanup began in 1994, Carpio-Sanguinette Park (former Northside Park) and Heron Pond Open Spaces create new opportunities for residents to experience nature close to home while strengthening connections between Globeville and the South Platte River.
What began as a project to treat stormwater runoff, turned into a completely new regional park for this neighborhood. Dig Studio, along with Wilson and Co Engineering, supported Denver Parks and Recreation and the community in the park’s vision and design. The design responds to the complexity of the site by bringing environmental cleanup, stormwater management, habitat and public recreation together, rather than treating them as separate systems.
The 80-acre park combines the Heron Pond Natural Area, the Carpio-Sanguinette Park) and adjoining City properties into a connected landscape designed around both ecological health and everyday neighborhood use. Once fragmented and largely inaccessible, the site now includes trails, overlooks, restored habitat, a regional playground, pavilion, and pump track, along with a 15-acre stormwater system that helps improve water quality by treating runoff from over 700 acres of surrounding land before it reaches the South Platte River.
Wetlands, river-edge landscapes and upland prairie provide habitat for birds, pollinators and other wildlife while supporting healthier soils and helping reduce urban heat. Trails and interpretive elements bring visitors closer to those systems and create opportunities to understand how water quality, habitat and recreation can work together within the same landscape.
Community priorities informed access, safety and programming, building on decades of neighborhood advocacy for environmental cleanup and reinvestment in Globeville and North Denver. Residents helped shape how the park welcomes and serves the neighborhood. Community input informed decisions about access, safety, activities and how the design reflects local identity.
Public art adds additional layers of local identity and storytelling:
- Nuestras Voces (Our Voices) by Denver artist Bimmer Torres, a sculptural series inspired by growth, community stories and the relationship between people and wildlife. The piece will be installed following the park’s opening.
- Los Arcos by Josh Palmieri of Two Palm Studio, a masonry sculpture inspired by the arched entryways found in homes throughout Globeville and Denver’s Latin American neighborhoods.
- Four painted steel sculptures by Victor Escobedo and Thomas Scharfenberg depicting native animals taking part in activities found throughout the park.
Existing graffiti walls near the stormwater landscape were retained at the community’s request, preserving a longtime space where artists have practiced their craft.
As the largest natural area within the Denver Parks system, Heron Pond demonstrates how land once defined by industry can take on a new role in neighborhood life, supporting habitat and water quality while giving residents more places to walk, play, gather and experience the South Platte River.
Total project funding was $44M for vision plan, design, and construction from DPR’s Park Legacy Fund, DOTI wastewater enterprise funds, and several grants, including GOCO, CDPHE, CO Health Foundation, CPW, and Adams County Open Space.
Carpio-Sanguinette Park & Heron Pond Open Space
Client and Public Agency Partners: City and County of Denver — Denver Parks and Recreation; Department of Transportation and Infrastructure
Landscape Architecture and Master Planning: Dig Studio
Ecological Planning and Design: Biohabitats
Additional Collaborators: Wilson & Company; Hydrosystems/KDI; Pinyon Environmental; Globeville residents and community participants.
Images: Denver Parks and Recreation
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