Sky Trapezium, Museum of Contemporary Art Denver

Denver, CO

“Sky Trapezium” is a roof garden and permanent art piece at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver. Inspired by the pools at Marble Mines in Colorado and the sod roofs described in novels by Willa Cather and Laura Ingalls Wilder, Dakin imagined a place for people to interact with landscape in novel ways: to sit in the shade under prairies and to experience up-close “belly views” of mountain flora. The angled, sculptural forms of planted beds are designed to withstand snow loads and high winds, as well as to create a provocative garden that pushes our expectations of landscape.

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Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust

Los Angeles, CA
10,000+ SF

Photo credits: Top left - John Greenlee, Lower Left - Lisa Lee Benjamin

In collaboration with Belzberg Architects, Evo Catalyst, RoofMeadows, and John Greenlee, this 10,000 square foot green roof provides a seamless transition from the museum to Pan Pacific Park beyond. Feathery grasses and wildflowers contrast with concrete architecture and the realities of the Holocaust. Seasonal changes in the roof meadow mark the cycles of the year and the inevitability of Spring. Drought-tolerant plantings need little irrigation in Los Angeles’ arid climate.

Read more in "Wind and Light: The Living Roof on the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust" Pacific Horticulture. October, 2013

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Rooftop Pollinator Garden

Boulder, CO

This award-winning residential green roof garden fulfilled the client’s dream of looking out her bedroom window into a living rooftop of flowering native plants and grasses frequented by local birds, butterflies and bees. K. Dakin Design made this dream a reality, selecting climate adapted plantings that would appeal to wildlife visitors. In addition to creating beauty and habitat, this green roof absorbs and slows the runoff of storm water on the home site, which dips below grade in a bathtub shape and is prone to flooding. 

We worked with the landscape contractors to devise several ways for water to drain: dry wells planted with wetland and moisture-loving plants; swales that guide water away from the house; a natural steel retaining wall and channels for water runoff. Drainage was both a challenge and an opportunity on the site, leading us into deeper collaborations with other consultants and allowing us to consider how water runoff could add beauty to the site and benefit the landscape. This project won the 2019 award for residential projects from Green Roofs for Healthy Cities.

More about this project in “Backyard Biodiversity.”

Project collaborators

Green Roofs of Colorado

Arch 11

NK Construction

Junoworks

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Syncline Roof Garden

Boulder, CO

This green roof prairie garden melds with dramatic views of the syncline mountain beyond. It captures rainwater runoff from the roof above and minimizes stormwater waste onsite. In addition to these ecological benefits, it creates an amenity space for the guest bedroom. A simulated prairie planted with natives, it echoes the natural prairie foothills beyond. This green roof project was part of a full ground-level garden also designed by Dakin.

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Denver Apartments

Denver, cO

Rooftops provide much-needed open space and outdoor access in urban environments. The design of this roof landscape (inspired by the High Line) created a combination outdoor living / dining room and park for apartment-dwellers, complete with turf, lounge furnishings, bamboo screens and a Ipe deck. The resulting space is an urban haven.

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Flourmill loft

Denver, cO

This urban rooftop was greened using solely well-considered planter boxes. Native and climate-adapted flowers, shrubs and cacti form miniature gardens bursting with color and life. This project shows that gardens can be brought to urban rooftops improving the environment for human residents and pollinators alike.

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