Kira grew up in Fort Collins and graduated in 2020 with a bachelor's degree in environmental design and an emphasis in products of design. She was involved with CEDaR's South Park Hill stormwater management project, where a community garden on private land was located directly north from an AutoZone parking lot. The area was highly susceptible to flooding, and the flood waters carried debris and runoff contamination from the parking lot. Along with working with CEDaR, Kira also was in contact with Tracey MacDermott (client), a member and leader of the neighborhood community who wanted to address the flooding concern. After going through the design process, Kira proposed a multi-faceted solution that would divert the water into a designated area instead of allowing the water to completely engulf the property. The proposal included manipulating a part of the landscape to act like a bioswale, transplanting some existing vegetation and adding new native vegetation to the site, and having a multi-level planter box funneling system along the wooden fence to direct the water. Kira was in charge of the design and was beginning to look at the planting list and budget and communicating progress with the client and CEDaR. Unfortunately due to COVID-19, her plans to implement the design in the spring were altered. By the end of the academic year, Kira had graduated and handed the project over to others who will hopefully physically implement the design in the coming weeks! Kira's interests are woodworking, cooking/ baking, motorcycles, hiking/ biking, her cats and traveling. In the future she hopes to do furniture design/ woodworking/ multi-functional/ space saving/ efficient product design.
For more information about Kira, view her LinkedIn page. Alumni pages are not always updated after graduation.