The Lamar Station Urban Farming Classroom

About

A design-build project, the Lamar Station Urban Farming Classroom is an outdoor classroom pavilion, located adjacent to the Lamar Station Crossing apartments in a rapidly redeveloping area of Lakewood, Colorado.

The pavilion is divided into three spaces: a learning/demonstration area (which features a movable table and a skylight), and a stage to the west which opens to an area designated for future raised beds and amphitheater seating. The pavilion is bisected by a steel gutter and wash station, which is designed celebrate rain as water pours off the roof and into the wash station.

This was a group project that was designed and built over two semesters as part of my involvement with the Colorado Building Workshop.

Challenges: The design phase started with the question “how can we create an affordable, distraction-free, outdoor learning space, while at the same time maintaining high visibility to discourage vandalism?” As our class discussed this, I suggested the idea that we would eventually call “dynamic transparency:” the idea is that transparency could be positional. The class pursued this idea, which ultimately resulted in specifying bar grate as the skin material. The bar grate creates a space which is clearly visible from the community management office, but largely opaque from the regional trail. As an added benefit, the bar grate material carries the majority of the structural load, therefore eliminating the need for structural columns.

My Role: Design & Construction Team member

Project Images

Additional images are available on the Colorado Building Workshop’s website.