"I know that there's a lot of chatter about, 'Hey, why isn't there something done? Why isn't there something built?' But this is incredible." A Northeast Park Hill resident said that to Denver7 in August.
Both halves of his quote hold up. Park Hill Park turns one on October 28. Nothing has been built there in that year. The rolling greens of the old course are still the main thing you see, and a walk there today is a walk on an old golf course. The city has now hired the firm that will redraw it, so this first full October is a version of the park with a limited run.
Denverite reported that the park opened to the public on Oct. 28, 2025. Getting there took a long fight. Woody Garnsey, who had pushed for public open space on the site for eight years, summed it up for Denverite: "We had two elections and two lawsuits, and finally we got a mayor who decided he was going to make it happen." Denver7 now ranks it as the fourth-largest park in Denver.
What You Find at the Gate
The temporary park is simple to use. That's partly because there isn't much there yet.
- Address: Denver lists the park at 4141 E 35th Ave.
- The gate: The site is still fenced. The way in is one gate at the former clubhouse, according to an eBird hotspot description dated November 2025. Denverite's July report also says there is a single gate.
- Parking: Denverite says you can park around the old clubhouse, just east of Colorado Boulevard and 35th Avenue.
- Hours and cost: Open dawn to dusk, and free.
- Dogs and bikes: Denver's park rules require dogs to be leashed and under physical control. Bikes are allowed only on park roads and designated off-street trails, at 15 mph or less.
Inside the gate, you walk the old golf-cart paths. Denverite calls them "crumbling." Denver7 said in August that some paths were in disrepair. In the same report, the resident listed who they see out there: joggers, bikers, parents with strollers, families, and "a lot of people walking their dog."
The birds have noticed the open space too. Between Sept. 30 and the first week of October 2026, eBird observers there logged a Cooper's Hawk, an American Kestrel, Black-billed Magpies, American Crows, chickadees, robins, House Finches and Mourning Doves.
The Promises on the City's Page, and the Paths on the Ground
Denver's Park Hill Park project page describes the site as having "walking trails, native plant species, a mature canopy provided by hundreds of trees, a dog park and much more." The same page lays out three stages. First comes passive use. Then a set of low-cost interim amenities, which the page lists as "a dog park, disc golf, picnic tables, and walking trail." The full build-out comes last.
Recent reporting shows where each piece of that plan stands.
| What the plan describes | Where it stands in recent reporting |
|---|---|
| Passive use: walking, jogging, views | Open since Oct. 28, 2025, on the old cart paths |
| Mowing only within 4 feet of walkways, managed as Open Space | Denver said in July it would mow more of the site through the end of summer, with no exact completion timeline |
| Dog park or disc golf as interim amenities | More than a year behind the original timeline, per Denverite in July |
| Irrigation | Only partly working. Denverite reported that most of the control system was heavily damaged before the city took over |
| Picnic tables, shade | Not funded in the first phase, according to a neighbor in July |
The broken irrigation goes back to the years before the city owned the land. After the developer lost at the ballot box, it fenced the site. Irrigation was torn out for scrap metal, and the historic clubhouse fell into disrepair. In July, Denver Parks and Recreation spokesperson Stephanie Figueroa told Denverite there was "no timeline for large scale irrigation fixes" because that work belongs to the larger capital project. In the meantime, the department is watering select trees and picking up trash every week.
Executive Director Jolon Clark had first proposed putting in a disc golf course or a dog park the summer before. When Denverite asked what was holding things up, Figueroa answered: "We still need to find a design firm."
The September Award the Project Page Hasn't Caught Up To
That answer is now out of date. Denver's procurement record for the Park Hill Park Design RFQ, Solicitation No. 202684823, shows its status as Awarded. The winner is Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc., and the award date is September 4, 2026. The project page, by contrast, still has a June update saying the team will be "reviewing proposals."
MVVA is the landscape architecture firm behind Brooklyn Bridge Park, which was completed in December 2021. It also designed Tulsa's 66-acre Gathering Place, listed as a 2018 project. The procurement record does not show a contract amount.
The RFQ scope shows how much of today's park is up for redesign. It covers site preparation, drainage, lighting, paths and bridges, amenities, habitat and landscape, and playgrounds. Those are the same old paths, mowed edges and dry turf a visitor walks through today. The vision framework Denver released early this year calls for gardens, playgrounds, sports fields and irrigation work to manage stormwater and prevent flooding.
The Calendar Between Now and a Finished Park
Here is the schedule as the sources describe it:
- Oct. 28, 2025: The park opens for passive use.
- November 2025: Voters approve the Vibrant Denver bond. Its project list includes $70 million for the Park Hill Park Buildout, to pay for basic infrastructure such as irrigation, landscape, walks, parking lots and drives, along with park amenities.
- June 30, 2026: The design RFQ is issued.
- Sept. 4, 2026: MVVA wins the award.
- 2027: The city plans to return to the community to refine the design.
- After that: No official construction start date has been published. The community-maintained eBird hotspot page estimates construction will likely begin in 2028, but that is a volunteer's estimate, not a city schedule.
The $70 million gets the work started, but it likely won't cover everything. Back at the opening, Denverite reported that construction could cost hundreds of millions and that the final number was unknown. A nearby resident put it bluntly in July: "maybe by 2030 we'll see a developed park."
So the old course in its current state probably has a couple more seasons before construction starts. Once design work begins, there will be fewer of them left.
An October Saturday Built Around the Old Course
The park's first full October lines up with a busy weekend in the rest of Park Hill.
Saturday, Oct. 17, 10 a.m. A "Park Hill Trash Bash" is on the Denver Parks volunteer calendar. The listing doesn't say whether the cleanup happens inside Park Hill Park or elsewhere in the neighborhood, so check the sign-up page first if you want to work on the old course itself.
Oct. 17 and 18. The Park Hill Open Studio Tour opens local artists' studios for the weekend, and The Art Garage is planning an artisan market.
Through Oct. 31. The pumpkin patch at Park Hill United Methodist Church, 5209 Montview Blvd., is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., according to Greater Park Hill News.
Before or after the walk. Cake Crumbs Bakery & Café at 2216 Kearney Street opens at 7 a.m. every day. The bakery closes at 4 p.m. on weekends, and the café kitchen serves until 2 p.m. To finish the day with a pint, Long Table Brewhouse at 2895 Fairfax Street opens daily at noon. It closes at 9 p.m. on Saturdays and 8 p.m. on Sundays, and food trucks are scheduled on site.
Watching a 155-acre park get designed in public is part of what Park Hill offers right now, and it's something Chriss Bond follows closely across central Denver. If you live near the old course and want to talk about how its design schedule fits into your own plans over the next few years, Contact Me.
