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Greening Five Points: Community-Led Green Infrastructure
A grassroots coalition bringing environmental justice and investment to a historic Denver neighborhood.
A Movement Rooted in Community.
In Denver’s historic Five Points neighborhood, a grassroots coalition is rewriting the narrative. Faced with decades of environmental injustice and disinvestment, local business owners formed the Green Dot Coalition to bring green infrastructure where the city had failed to act. Their vision? A neighborhood transformed by trees, gardens, and community-led design.
Greening Five Points is more than a plan—it’s a growing movement powered by residents, students, and advocates working shoulder-to-shoulder for climate justice.
Initial Site Conditions
Building the Message
To amplify their vision, the coalition partnered with a team of BIPOC landscape architecture students through a 10-week internship. Together, they created a communications framework that captured the neighborhood’s challenges and aspirations. The result was a powerful document, Greening Five Points, that sparked dialogue, inspired action, and became a rallying tool across social media and community events.
Turning Vision into Action
The first planting day brought over 45 neighbors together to break up concrete and plant trees. These hands-on demonstrations showed what was possible—and residents responded by creating their own “green dots” throughout the neighborhood.
Momentum grew with the release of a short film, For a Greener Denver, which elevated community voices and called for investment in grassroots solutions. A watch party with city officials and funders led to new partnerships and over 10,000 views online.
Scaling Up
Greening Five Points didn’t stop at demonstration projects. The coalition secured transformative grants to launch a youth workforce program and a stewardship model with Denver Public Schools. Their advocacy helped shift city policy—Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure committed 60% of its capital budget to rapidly install green infrastructure in underserved neighborhoods.
A New Model for Design
This project redefines how designers engage with communities. The coalition wasn’t a stakeholder—they were the client. By working directly with residents, the team built capacity, trust, and a replicable model for equitable change.
Greening Five Points proves that when communities lead, and designers listen, real transformation takes root.