Denver Metro City Design Competition

2013-14 Topic: Pocket Neighborhoods

Full Description of all winners: Click Here (5M)

Summary of Winners

Scholarship: 1st Place

Cole Hancock, 9th Grade, Heritage HS, Littleton

Scholarship: 2nd Place

Wesley Gaskill, Ben Lin, Nhi Ma, Jacques Mcleau, Diego Ramirez, Golden HS, Golden

Scholarship: 3rd Place

Winner: Best Density

Paul Trainor, 7th Grade, Home School, Parker

Scholarship: Honorable Mention

Winner: People's Choice

Winner: Most Creative Idea

Riley Blanchard, 11th Grade, Home School, Littleton

Scholarship: Honorable Mention

Winner: Best Narrative

...
On a broader scale, this thinking led me to think of traditional urban design as reactionary. For example, when storm runoff became a problem, it was diverted into nearby rivers with pipes and the pollution in the water was left for another person to deal with down the road. Urban problems were dealt with as isolated phenomena and not as parts of large interworking systems. That thinking led me to a new perspective on what the true potential of pocket neighborhoods is. I no longer view pocket neighborhoods as single entities that contain more houses per acre than average. I now realize that pocket neighborhoods are really an abstract idea that allow for the building of systems to treat the causes of urban problems. Every pocket neighborhood needs to be different, needs to be tailored to it's unique environment. This finally, became a theme in my design. I designed simplistic floor plans to emphasize that the architectural design of the houses is not important and should be interchangeable to adjust to the needs and wants of different environments and inhabitants. I designed my three-dimensional model and my site plan with two different rainwater collection systems to underscore the fact that no one system is perfect. I came to believe that through flexibility my design could be a blueprint for change in any neighborhood in the country.

Simon Bertron, 11th Grade, Denver East HS, Denver

Fun Category: 1st Place

Tanner Amman, Luke Archibald, 6th Grade, All Souls Catholic School, Englewood

Fun Category: 2nd Place

Winner: People's Choice

Jack Martin, 6th Grade, All Souls Catholic School, Englewood

Fun Category: 3rd Place

Colette Burch, 6th Grade, Home School, Littleton

Fun Category: Honorable Mention

Adam Richardson, 3rd Grade, Bill Roberts Elementary, Denver

Fun Category: Honorable Mention

Gianna Burch, 2nd Grade, Home School, Littleton