Urban Play Garden in the Sky

4th floor green roof playground and urban garden The Gathering Place - Denver’s only woman’s day shelter Denver, Colorado   At The Gathering Place - Denver’s only daytime drop-in center for women and children who are experiencing homelessness or poverty, I participated (while working as a team member with Design Workshop, Inc - Denver) in creating of a safe and fun roof top- and play ground garden. Children help seed, tend, grow and harvest throughout the year. Vegetables, fruit and herbs are used daily in the kitchen at The Gathering Place where lunch and snacks are served to the visiting woman and children. The Urban Garden on the 4th floor roof also functions as a playground with many exciting features including, a tri-cycle path with numbers and letters, a play structure with running water to educate children about erosion, swing set, slides and play houses. Green roofs, vertical gardens and other living systems have many ecological, aesthetic, and financial benefits. Some of them include: controlling stormwater runoff, erosion, and pollution, more than doubling the service life of roofs, conserving energy, creating wildlife habitat, improving water and air quality, mitigating urban heat-island effects, cooling and cleaning the air and, as here, growing food and provide for educational opportunities.   Client: The Gathering Place