Two F.C. firms recognized for design, planning efforts

FORT COLLINS — Colorado’s ongoing drought has heightened attention in recent years to water-sensitive landscape techniques.

And that’s brought business — and professional recognition — to the Fort Collins landscape architecture firm of BHA Design Inc.

The Fort Collins company, headed by Bruce Hendee, recently walked off with three awards from the annual Colorado Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects Professional Design Awards.

Another local office, the Fort Collins branch of EDAW Inc., also took three awards from the state chapter.

One of BHA’s awards stemmed from a backyard project that, appropriately, brought xeriscaping techniques to the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District’s headquarters.

BHA designed the Colorado-Big Thompson Interpretive Plaza located outside the water district’s new Berthoud facility, which opened last year. The plaza is a one-acre scale model of the Colorado-Big Thompson project, mimicking the path of water that flows from the continental divide and into water storage projects on the Front Range.

“Brian Werner, the information officer, saw a very valuable need for that,” Hendee said. “A big part of his job is interpreting the history of the district. By putting that in place, it gave him the opportunity to walk through the gardens with tour groups and actually review the entire (CBT) system.”

Throughout the plaza, BHA and the water district employed xeriscaping — a technique that utilizes drought-tolerant foliage. The design resulted in nearly 70 percent water savings compared to the use of traditional bluegrass, Hendee said.

BHA’s other two awards include a xeriscape garden for the city of Aurora, and a restoration project for the historical Ute Cemetery in Aspen.

Hendee said he intends to submit the water district and Aurora projects for consideration in the national American Society of Landscape Architects contest, which will be decided in October.

With the water district and Aurora projects as standards, up to 75 percent of BHA’s business is now tied to sustainable landscaping.

“I think the drought of 2002 changed everybody’s mindset” about drought-tolerant landscaping, Hendee said.

Currently, BHA is working on a sustainable landscape design for the new Medical Center of the Rockies, the regional hospital under construction in Loveland near the crossroads of Interstate 25 and U.S. Highway 34.

“Our site development there is going to be a very strong statement,” Hendee said. “I personally would like to see us, as a region, redesign the aesthetic for Northern Colorado. I think it would be a much more interesting landscape.”

Awards for the Fort Collins EDAW office included its contributions to the Yampa River Management Plan for the city of Steamboat Springs, and planning for recreational uses in the Yampa River in Steamboat Springs.

Two other awards were for out-of-state projects: the Lena Meijer Children’s Garden in Grand Rapids, Mich., and the University of Kentucky Arboretum Children’s Garden Master Plan in Lexington, Ky.

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