Denver Municipal Animal Shelter

The Denver Municipal Animal Shelter, a LEED Platinum certified project, is part of the voter-approved “Building a Better Denver” Bond Program. The Shelter plays an important role in animal health, safety and welfare. In the Denver Metro area the shelter is the primary facility for lost, unwanted abandoned, abused and long-term “hold” animals including  police holds, court holds, bite quarantines and evictions.

StudioCPG was contacted by Animal Arts Design to provide site planning and landscape design services in conjunction with new facility design. The brownfield site, located adjacent to the Platte River on South Bayaud Street is contaminated by the byproducts of chemical processes and required the construction of a clay cap to keep the contamination isolated and prevent leakage into the watershed.  StudioCPG  collaborated with team engineers and City Staff to design and locate the cap in a manner the allows for thoughtful solutions to pedestrian and vehicular circulation as well as plazas, dog runs, sculpture locations and plantings around the facility.

Trees and shrubs on the south side of the building provide shade, mitigate wind and dust, and visually connect the entrance to the tree lined riparian fringe of the S. Platte River Greenway.  Runoff from dog runs and parking areas is directed to adjacent landscape and water quality zones before connecting to the swales that parallel the River. Permanent irrigation was not permitted on the cap, however, so landscape at the walking trails and barns is limited to native grasses and an experimental planter with extremely xeric shrubs.