Located on a centennial homestead, the Aurora Farm Park is an award-winning community and regional flex space that reimagines the relationship between architecture, agriculture, and public life on Colorado’s high prairie. Designed in collaboration with Superbloom Landscape Architects, the project transforms one of Aurora’s last remaining examples of vernacular dryland agriculture into a contemporary agricultural exploratorium for the Denver metropolitan region.
Steve Scribner
Morgan Law
Bunny Tucker
Maggie Wohltjen
Sarah Vanderpool
Erica Robinson
Jen Jaffke, Diem Tran
Studio NYL
Branch Pattern
Superbloom Landscape Architects
4,000 sf + Greenhouse and existing Barn
Aurora, CO
- 2023 AIA Colorado Design Award Honorable Mention
- Architizer A+ Award Popular Choice Winner
- Denver Business Journal
The architecture is rooted in honoring the site’s layered history while designing resilient, flexible structures for the future. The Center for Agriculture building serves as the primary architectural anchor and gateway to the park—a highly adaptable education and community building that accommodates workshops, events, informal gatherings, and café support spaces. Its form, materiality, and orientation respond to the open prairie landscape, reinforcing a clear sense of arrival while remaining grounded in the scale and character of historic farm structures.
Across the site, new and existing buildings are designed to integrate into a cohesive campus. As a beacon of authenticity in the rapidly changing area, the design preserves and adapts the historic barn to continue its legacy as a home for animals, while the existing silos and milk shed are thoughtfully repurposed as spaces for play, art, and interpretation. These architectural interventions prioritize reuse and adaptation, allowing the historic fabric of the farm to remain clearly legible while supporting contemporary community use. CO2e – enough for a flight from Denver to Tokyo and back. FSC-certified wood, recycled-content exterior panels, and locally sourced stone reduce embodied carbon. The super-insulated, airtight envelope (R-30 walls + R-9 continuous insulation) and high-performance windows achieve a HERS Index of 37 (projected –18 with solar), reducing heating, cooling, and hot water energy use by over 60–80%. A wood-burning stove allows passive operation during power outages, and the home is Energy Star certified.
Architecture and landscape are conceived as inseparable systems. Buildings are sited to frame views, define outdoor rooms, and support agricultural functions, ranging from teaching gardens to active growing spaces. A geothermal-powered greenhouse (originally envisioned as a custom structure and later adapted to a high-performance off-the-shelf system) extends the growing season and reinforces the park’s role as a working farm and educational resource. Throughout the campus, architecture supports regenerative land practices by minimizing impact, conserving water and soil, and creating flexible, porous spaces that respond to Colorado’s climate.
As a net-zero operational carbon project and recipient of multiple design awards, the Aurora Farm Park demonstrates how architecture can act as both infrastructure and educator, supporting resilient food systems, celebrating regional history, and creating a new civic heart for Aurora’s evolving neighborhoods.
