"We had two elections and two lawsuits, and finally we got a mayor who decided he was going to make it happen," Woody Garnsey told Denverite the day Park Hill Park opened. "And he did." Garnsey had spent eight years pushing for public open space on the former Park Hill Golf Course. On October 28, 2025, the fence came down and leashed dogs and their owners walked out onto the old fairways.
The first anniversary is October 28, and the park looks a lot like it did that day. The difference is on paper. On September 4, 2026, Denver awarded the park's design contract to Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc. The city's framework plan, finished in January, already says what most of today's open ground will become. This fall may be the last full season to walk the property as an empty golf course.
A year on the old fairways
What opened last October was a temporary park. It is free and open dawn to dusk, and most of it is walking paths across the rolling greens of the former course. You can park around the old clubhouse just east of Colorado Boulevard and 35th Avenue. The city lists the park's address as 4141 E. 35th Ave.
The land took damage during the years it sat closed. After Westside Investment Partners lost at the ballot box, it put up a fence and closed off public access. Grass grew, the irrigation was torn up for scrap metal, and the historic clubhouse fell into disrepair. In July, Denverite described the site as about 155 acres behind a fence, with one public gate open from sunrise to sunset and paths that were crumbling. A Denver Parks and Recreation spokesperson, Stephanie Figueroa, said then that the irrigation system was only partly working. Most of the controls, she said, had been "heavily damaged due to years of vandalism and neglect" before the department took over. Her crews were watering select trees and picking up trash every week. In August, Denver7 reported that nothing had been built on the land since it opened and that some walking paths were in disrepair.
People have used the park anyway. Neighbors told Denver7 in August that they had seen people jogging, biking, walking dogs and bringing children. One planned addition never showed up. Parks Executive Director Jolon Clark had proposed a disc golf course or a dog park as an interim amenity for summer 2025. By July 2026 that idea was more than a year behind schedule. Figueroa's explanation was short: "We still need to find a design firm."
The firm, the scope and the calendar
That gap is now filled, at least for the permanent park. Here is how the city's design procurement unfolded in 2026:
| Date | Step |
|---|---|
| June 30 | Denver Bond Office and DOTI issue the request for qualifications |
| August 13 | Submissions close |
| September 4 | Contract awarded to Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates |
| 2027 | City returns to the community to refine the design |
The scope of work in the solicitation shows what the firm was hired to draw. It covers construction documents for:
- demolition and site preparation, earthwork, and drainage and channel improvements
- site electrical, including lighting and a UV treatment and pumping system for a water play area
- paving, small pedestrian bridges, walls and boulders
- shade structures, ecological and habitat educational features, and site amenities
- seeding, sod, native plantings, irrigation and an irrigation pump station
- outdoor adventure areas and playgrounds, with the option of two years of landscape establishment
The project website says the team will produce "a final design at a much closer level of detail" and that the city "will be back out in the community in 2027." For now, no engagement events are scheduled. So the next public round on the park's design is at least a few months away, and possibly most of a year.
Where the plan puts things
The firm isn't starting from a blank page. Denver Parks and Recreation ran a visioning process from April 2025 to January 22, 2026, when the final Framework Vision came out. The city says it collected 7,765 completed surveys and 5,930 open-ended comments through three open houses, five activations and 23 pop-up and tabling events. That record is what the new design has to work from.
The framework is specific about location. A meandering creek bed runs through the middle of the park to handle stormwater and create habitat. The busiest uses go to the corners. A field house, a destination playground and outdoor adventure areas sit near Colorado Boulevard and 40th Avenue, and athletic fields and sports courts line Colorado Boulevard. The existing clubhouse becomes the center of a cultural hub for community gatherings. Restrooms, picnic pavilions and observation structures are spread across the site, and a wide multi-use loop connects all of it.
Overlay that on the park as it is today. The Colorado Boulevard edge you drive past is planned for organized sports. The north end near 40th is planned for the busiest play areas. The clubhouse, now known mostly as the place to park, is planned as the park's social center. The plan describes the quieter middle as the place where "visitors can immerse themselves in nature," with observation points and nature-based play. Today's long, open views across the greens will be broken up by a creek channel, bridges and plantings.
What the bond money buys first
The city says plainly that not all of the framework is funded. "Right now, there is not confirmed funding for everything you see here," the project site says, and future public input will help decide "how to phase and budget this project."
Voters approved the Vibrant Denver Bond on November 4, 2025. Its project list puts $70 million toward the Park Hill Park buildout, for basic infrastructure and likely amenities including play areas, sports, water play, picnic areas, a dog park and paths. The full bond is $950 million spread over 58 projects, and the city plans to build them over six years, from 2026 through 2031. When the park opened, Denverite called that $70 million "the first" of the funding and noted that "many millions more could still be needed."
Neighbors close to the project expect a long build. Kevin Doyle, a retired firefighter and neighborhood leader whose house backs up to the park, told Denverite in July that "maybe by 2030 we'll see a developed park." Denver7 found a range of views in August. Neighbor Deronn Turner doubted the city would deliver the park as planned, and Doyle said he was confident it would eventually be finished. Either way, the design contract that was missing in July has now been awarded, and the bond schedule ends in 2031.
October on the north end
If you want to see the open greens before design work starts to change them, October has a couple of good reasons to go. On Saturday, October 17, Denver Parks' volunteer program holds a Park Hill Trash Bash from 10 a.m. to noon, part of the monthly trash pickup at Park Hill Park. Emily Zeller, the department's volunteer and stewardship program manager, is the contact. Eleven days later, on October 28, the park marks one year open to the public.
The same month has two events farther south in the neighborhood. The pumpkin patch at Park Hill United Methodist Church, 5209 Montview Blvd., is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. through October 31, and the proceeds fund the church's youth and children's programs. On Sunday, October 18, the second annual Park Hill Halloween Costume Parade + Crafternoon runs from 2 to 4 p.m. at Long Table Brewhouse, 2895 Fairfax St. It's open to families and pets, and the parade heads to Fairfax Park at 3:30.
To hear about the 2027 design sessions when they're announced, sign up for the city's mailing list through parkhillpark.org. That is the only notice channel the project currently lists.
We've watched Park Hill's north end go from fenced fairways to a public park with a designer under contract. If you'd like to talk about how the next phase may shape the streets around 35th and Colorado, Trish & Maggie Team would be glad to hear from you. Let's Connect.
