National Western Center

The National Western Center (NWC) is a new take on a legendary Colorado space – a future place where heritage of the Old West meets progress of the New West, a space where school children can cultivate food systems while researchers discover food security solutions that will change the world. Enhancing these Denver landmarks, the National Western Center will strengthen Denver’s global standing as a world-class hub for entertainment, education, research and agribusiness. It will also provide a modernized home from the treasured National Western Stock Show for the next 100 years.
The campus placemaking strategy included a detailed user experience analysis to understand how the various user groups would activate the public realm and form the dynamic public life of the campus. The study included a series of interviews with each major user group to gain information in developing key goals and strategies to inform site planning, facilities relationships, and event coordination. By developing an understanding of how people will use the campus, Livable Cities was able to develop design and programming strategies to enhance the user experience.
As one of the nine Guiding Principles from the National Western Center Master Plan, “Inspire Health and Wellness”, aims to inspire a healthy and vibrant way of life, promote recreational opportunities, multi-modal connections and access to healthy food for all populations. Livable Cities also completed a public realm study to identify specific design elements or site features to help meet the health and wellness goals, including active design elements and programming opportunities in public spaces.

Livable Cities Studio was part of a multi-disciplinary team involved in the landscape architecture, urban design and placemaking components of the project.
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Collaborators

City and County of Denver

MIG

OV Consulting

Studio Insite

Winter & Company

505 Design

Services

Urban Design