The Backyard

Outdoor space as a living laboratory

The CSU Spur Backyard functions as a living laboratory where scientists study plant health, water quality, green infrastructure, urban agriculture, and more. The outdoor space features landscape architecture representing the state’s major watersheds and allows visitors to enjoy a break in the Colorado sunshine while connecting with educational opportunities and interactive, rotating programming.

Backyard landscaping and plant selection

The Backyard was designed to reflect the four major watersheds found in Colorado: South Platte, Arkansas, Rio Grande, and Colorado River. The Continental Divide is represented with an interactive water pump to help visitors understand how water moves through the watersheds, flowing either east or west, into engineered bioswales.

Native and low-water-needs or “xeric” plants are featured in the Backyard and are well adapted to this region’s semi-arid climate. The Backyard features native or adaptive and locally available plants that can thrive in Colorado’s different geological conditions.

Bioswales

Bioswales are landscape features that collect contaminated stormwater runoff, soak it into the ground, and filter out pollution. Bioswales are designed to capture runoff coming from large areas of impervious surfaces like streets and parking lots, and they have specific design features such as layers of engineered soil and gravel, perforated pipe underdrains, and overflow structures to help handle runoff from large storms.

Like a super-sized rain garden, the Backyard bioswales use native or adaptive plants that require less water but help the ground absorb more precipitation while also preventing erosion. Engineers and landscape architects worked together to design and build the CSU Spur bioswales.

From the Backyard, visitors can also look through the glass doors into the Water TAP lab, where water treatment technologies are advanced to promote widespread adoption of more sustainable water recycling and reuse practices. For example, monitoring and sensing technologies are evaluated in the TAP to assess the performance of the Backyard’s landscaped bioswales. The Backyard allows researchers to study the flow rate and filtration capabilities of these nature-based water treatment systems.

Rainwater collection & irrigation

A metal tank in the Backyard holds water that is collected from the Hydro building rooftop then piped and treated in the Water TAP lab before being pumped into a storage vessel. This water, aka roof runoff, is used to water sections of the Backyard plants where underground monitoring equipment collects data on water quality and flow.

The roof runoff is also used directly inside the Water TAP lab to evaluate different combinations of treatment and use such as membrane filtration and biological, microbial or ultraviolet treatment.

CSU works with Denver Water to return the same amount of water collected through this mechanism to the South Platte River to make sure the river ecosystem and aquatic life is not disturbed.

Experimental test plots

In a collaborative research project jointly funded by the Mile High Flood District and City and County of Denver, CSU researchers, Sybil Sharvelle and Jennifer Bousselot, are advancing innovations in stormwater management in Spur’s Backyard which functions as a unique “living laboratory.”

Experiments occur in two specially designed test plots that mimic streetside planters commonly used in urban landscapes along the Colorado Front Range. 

These experimental plots are filled with soil mixtures (media) and vegetation (plants) typically installed in streetside planters across the Denver area. The plots include built-in systems to irrigate the plants using stormwater runoff collected in vaults underneath the Backyard and sampling equipment to gather data on water quality, flow rates, plant health, and other important performance-related information.

Agricultural plots

The Backyard is also home to several urban agriculture plots where CSU researchers show how urban spaces can be used for plant and food production. These plots serve as a research and demonstration site to investigate water use, food production, plant-pollinator interactions, seeding, and other emergent industry questions. Plumbing inside Hydro’s Water TAP lab can be connected to the irrigation system to explore how different water sources, such as graywater or stormwater collected in Hydro, can be used to water food crops in urban areas.

Hydro green roof

The Hydro rooftop houses an extensive photovoltaic system, an array of solar panels that use energy from the sun to generate electricity. Planters are located directly below the solar panels providing simultaneous power generation and plant or edible crop production. These are commonly referred to as “agrivoltaic” or “argisolar” systems. This system is not publicly accessible, but guests can stop by the green roof on Terra to visit a living rooftop garden or walk to the northwest corner of the Backyard to catch a glimpse of the solar arrays from the ground!

South Platte River Access

In addition to all that the Backyard has to offer, the space parallels the South Platte River, where restoration and new riverfront offerings, including walking paths and an amphitheater, are under development. It’s an easy walk down to the river from the Backyard to explore one of Colorado’s most important waterways.

Crescendo

The Backyard is also home to one of CSU Spur’s eight art installations, titled Crescendo, made up of large concrete waves, designed and installed by local artist Nikki Pike.