When it comes to recess, kids from kindergarten to high school want a space to be creative, use their imagination and connect with friends. But what are the best ways to facilitate that? 

For 15 landscape architecture students at the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information, this challenge was a chance to use their own imaginations to design outdoor recreation spaces at two Boulder schools.

“We really let it be guided by the students and their interests, and then determined what would be realistic to actually create from that,” said Anastasia Neznamova, a junior studying landscape architecture.

The studio course, Green Schoolyards, first launched in 2020 under Emily Greenwood, an associate teaching professor in the environmental design department. In that time, students have partnered with 18 schools on redesign plans.

“Schoolyards are accidentally set aside as open space, and are full of opportunity. When we're creating learning spaces and ecological services, future generations benefit from that work,” Greenwood said.

She has worked with as many as six schools in one semester, but this year, the studio partnered with two Boulder schools. A teacher at New Vista High School, which recently underwent a massive renovation, is leading a regenerative agriculture program; he and Greenwood were part of a group that decided a collaboration would be a natural next step in the school’s redesign.

Horizons K-8 School, meanwhile, had worked with environmental design students on a nature play area more than a decade ago. This time, they hope to redevelop three separate areas around the campus with nature play opportunities in mind.

“There’s an ongoing effort to create spaces at schools that are sustainable, that really take into consideration a child’s relationship with nature and the ways children play,” said Kristin Hauger, assistant head of school at Horizons. “I love the fact that our students got a chance to work with the CU students, and that they got a chance to come and do some real life, hands-on work in a place where we’re committed to doing these kinds of things.”

It was important for the landscape architecture students to get face time with the students they were designing for. In addition to site visits, they went back to the schools mid-term to present their initial proposals for their schoolyard designs. Photos by Jack Moody (StratComm'25)

Getting their hands dirty

As part of the studio, environmental design students learned from landscape architecture professionals and even went on field trips to local parks and schoolyards that already had elements of nature play, as opposed to those set up around prefabricated equipment. 

Most importantly, however, they worked directly with their clients.

Over the course of the semester, the environmental design students met their younger counterparts multiple times to get a sense of what they wanted from the designs. One 9-year-old from Horizons, Gretchen, said she wanted to see more nature, “and maybe a water feature.”

Initially hesitant, the high schoolers at New Vista eventually became more engaged once they were encouraged to think outside the box.

“One wild idea was to have a zip line,” Neznamova said, laughing. “Once they were envisioning the space, they got excited. We had to consider what the community told us, then think about how to make something that excites people. That’s the story we’re able to tell through the designs.”

“Working with the Horizon kids was a really cool opportunity to get more imaginative ideas and more creativity for our designs,” said Maddie Veasey, another junior studying landscape architecture.

Presenting new possibilities

After presenting to the schools in late October, the environmental design students had about a month to refine their designs ahead of their final presentations to professionals, including city employees and others in the engineering and architecture industries and get back to the schools to present the design.

Some groups dug in deeper to their designs, like one Horizons group tasked with reenvisioning the field behind the school. They focused their design on "traditional ecological knowledge" and cultivating not only plants, but also community and stewardship of the land.

“We wanted to tell the story of the land: what has been done to it, and what we can do now,” said team member Dylan Dodds, a senior studying landscape architecture. “This project is a story about remembering, reconciling and moving forward with all of this 'traditional ecological knowledge,' the stewardship, these land practices in a way that benefits the environment.”

Community was a key topic for many of the groups, as was honoring the various sites’ history. Dodds’ group at Horizons leaned into both the school’s historical relationship with anthropologist Jane Goodall, who visited Horizons in 2015, as well as the ecological knowledge that can be learned from Indigenous communities.

“We talked about cultivating plants and cultivating stewardship, but we also want to cultivate community and activity,” said junior Ella Seevers, Dodds’ team member. “Part of our concept is tying in that modern use and activity with our other values.”

The students’ thoroughness and thoughtfulness stood out to the professionals at the presentation.

Civil engineer and landscape architect Soozy Zerbe said she was especially impressed by the way the students’ research became part of the story. “That’s one of the most important things as a designer: digging that history up and telling the true story, not just telling the story you want to tell,” said Zerbe, an engineer designer with Alta Planning and Design, of Denver.

The college’s work with New Vista is continuing, with Greenwood and a group of her students collaborating with New Vista on a food cart design-build for its regenerative agriculture program. Hauger said that the Horizon School’s council is enthusiastic about expanding nature play around their campus, and will have to discuss the logistical next steps.

“Our students have the ability to empathize and really understand what kids just one generation below them are really looking for,” Greenwood said. “Really successful landscapes are storytelling. It’s so easy to design literally, but if there’s a thread that binds those elements together, then it’s a stronger design.”

Hannah Stewart covers student news for the college. She graduated from CMDI in 2019 with a degree in communication.

Photos by Jack Moody (StratComm'25)