Lines Divide – Parks Unite: Rewriting the Map – How Parks are Healing Denver’s Historic Inequities - 1.0 PDH (LA CES/HSW)
Includes a Live Web Event on 06/10/2026 at 1:00 PM (EDT)
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- Non-member - $55
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- Student Member - Free!
- Associate Member - Free!
Denver’s history of redlining placed parks on contaminated, undeveloped land, leading to disinvestment and deepening inequities in historically marginalized neighborhoods with systemic health and economic challenges. Explore how Denver is systematically revitalizing these spaces through innovative outreach, cultural celebration, and natural system restoration to create healthier, more connected communities.
Learning objectives:
- Learn how Denver is addressing historic park development inequities and explore strategies that can be applied to other park systems for greater equity and community impact.
- Learn how authentic public engagement uncovers cultural values that can be integrated into design solutions, fostering spaces that resonate with and reflect the community’s identity.
- Discover how expanding the public engagement toolkit with innovative, non-traditional methods enhances participation, builds trust, and fosters community buy-in for more inclusive, impactful, and authentic design processes.
- Learn diverse strategies for integrating recreation and green infrastructure to address the challenges of past environmental contamination, creating sustainable and restorative public spaces.
Image: Paco Sanchez Park, Denver, Colorado / David Patterson
Laurel S. Raines, FASLA
President Principal
Dig Studio, Inc.
Laurel Raines is a landscape architect with a career spanning over four decades, focused on transforming communities through environmentally sustainable design. Co-founding Dig Studio in 2012, she has pioneered water-wise practices and local ecological vernacular in public projects like Paco Sanchez Park and Carpio Sanguinette/Heron Pond Park. A Fellow of the ASLA, Laurel advocates for landscape architecture’s role in shaping healthier, more sustainable environments. Her design expertise includes parks, recreation centers, and inclusive play areas. Passionate about community, she serves on various boards and holds degrees in Plant Science from the University of Vermont and Landscape Architecture from Harvard.
Will Viitanen, ASLA, PLA, LEED AP, SITES AP
Associate Principal
Livable Cities Studio
Will Viitanen is a landscape architect and project leader at Livable Cities Studio. He specializes in enhancing the creative process, design, and technical execution across various project types, including public realms, green infrastructure, and university campuses. His work focuses on using design to tackle social, economic, and environmental challenges, creating unique and memorable spaces. With a background in architecture, Will approaches design with an emphasis on craftsmanship and detailing, while his landscape architecture expertise supports a sustainable, integrated, and place-based design approach that prioritizes performance and resilience.
Gordon Robertson
Director - Park Planning, Design and Construction
Denver Parks and Recreation
Gordon Robertson has been a Parks and Recreation professional for over 30 years with an Urban Planning Degree from the University of Texas. He possesses an internal passion for nature, the physical environment, and placemaking. Gordon has learned to love urban planning, community outreach and understanding, and strategic organizational alignment. He has worked for the Lower Colorado River Authority in Austin, TX, as a community planner and as a project manager (1995-2001), then as Director of Park Planning, Design and Construction (PDC) for the City of Arlington, TX (2001-2007) before taking his current role as the Director of PDC for the City of Denver, CO (2007-).
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