Riverside Ranch

Woody Creek, Colorado

Imagination and cultural acuity inspire environmental restoration and the establishment of a new place

Once a working ranch, then transformed into an asphalt batch plant, this project site had become a neglected landscape over time. Eager to integrate the ranch cabins into their new property, the owners engaged Design Workshop to develop a plan which included the reorganization and restoration of the buildings into the overall site planning and design for the landscape. The recreated ranch compound consists of a main house and five historic outbuildings that were carefully moved, rotated and precisely reconstructed, board by board on site, emulating an earlier era when the property and its cabins played an important role in the ranching and social history of the Roaring Fork Valley. Through siting, restoration of historic buildings, and the creation of a functioning riparian habitat from the required on-site storage, the project site is now regionally significant.

“It looks like a summer camp. The owner had to work with a difficult water-use situation. The old timber buildings are the starting point and creating the water stream is so sensitive. It looks simple, but it is difficult to make it look natural. The strong part is the water. The site plan organization is of merit here. It gives a sense of the stretch of the river. I love the elasticity, and the buildings are organized as a farm in context with the nature.” — National ASLA Professional Awards Jury

Services Provided: Site Analysis, Master Planning, Zoning & Land Use Approvals, Site Planning, Conceptual Design, Schematic Design, Design Development, Construction Documents, Permitting, Bidding/Negotiations, Construction Observation, Grading & Drainage Plans, Landscape Architecture, Lighting Design