About 100,000 people a year visit Bluff Lake Nature Center, and those visitors were at the center of the campus improvements unveiled February 14: restrooms, water stations, an accessible ramp, and stairs.

On a blue-sky February day with a bald eagle flying overhead, visitors saw the changes up close at the grand re-opening and ceremonial ribbon cutting at the nature center. Many had watched the year-long construction project, eagerly anticipating seeing the new buildings at 11255 E. MLK Jr. Blvd., adjacent to the site of the former Stapleton Airport.

“This project started as a dream of our staff, a dream of our volunteers, a dream of former board members, of people who saw what Bluff Lake was and wanted to protect it and make the infrastructure better for the whole community,” Rachel Hutchens, executive director of the nature center, told the crowd.

Community is a word heard often at Bluff Lake, and the community showed up for the grand opening. A line of people picked up maps and wrote words on scraps of paper that were turned into a poem by Denver poet Franklin Cruz at the ribbon cutting.

“Bluff Lake is a unicorn in Denver, observing the city connection to something so beautiful, you don’t even have to leave your neighborhood in order to find fun. You don’t even have to leave your neighborhood to believe in something,” Cruz mused.

A few days before the celebration, Hutchens gave Front Porch a tour. With great pride and gratitude for the more than 12,000 donors who made the $8.5 million project possible, Hutchens walked through new buildings that hold staff offices, meeting rooms, and a community lobby.

“We want to expand the ways that people connect with nature. It’s not just going on a bird walk. It might also be doing a painting class about nature or photography or mindfulness. The building allows us a lot more flexibility to help people connect with nature,” she added.

The changes, she said, also make it easier to visit the site. With running water and “real” bathrooms, “you don’t have to plan to bring four water bottles because we don’t have water, or say, ‘My kid doesn’t like going in a porta-potty, so I can’t go to Bluff Lake.’”

And the changes are better for the staff, who will all now work on site rather than a few miles away. Hutchens is excited to be able to interact with visitors and volunteers more often.

“It’s going to feel like much more of a community, because there will be Bluff Lake people around, so visitors can ask us questions,” she said. “It’ll be great they can go into the lobby and talk with one of our volunteers and get a lot of their questions answered.” Lobby hours for now are the following:

Sunday – Closed
Monday – Closed
Tuesday – 9am to 1pm
Wednesday – 1pm to 5pm
Thursday – 2pm to 4pm
Friday – 11am to 3pm
Saturday – 1pm to 3 pm

A wellness space, room for nursing mothers, and sensory space for kids are all part of the design along with better pickup and drop off spots for parents and school groups. A path now leads children away from the parking lot. There’s also a path to a new pedestrian entrance along MLK Jr. Blvd. The Havana Street entrance, opened when the project began, will also still be an option.

And there’s the new accessible ramp with green railings painted to match the sage plants growing on the bluff, or stairs are an option for accessing the trail circling the lake.

There were a few bumps in the road, as with any major construction project. In this case, there were giant chunks of concrete and rebar found buried under the bluff, which Hutchens said had to be taken off site, adding $750,000 to the project. She keeps a chunk of that concrete in her office as a reminder of the project and how far they’ve come.

Hutchens acknowledged that there will be growing pains in the months ahead. The team will learn what they don’t know from the community after seeing how the new spaces are being used, and the windows will be treated with glazing to help prevent birds from flying into the panes.

“I know we solved a lot of problems with this project, like not having water, and having a new gate. You also know we’re probably creating new problems for ourselves. I just don’t know what those are yet,” Hutchens added.

Birder George Ho, who leads bird walks at the nature center, sees opportunity ahead. He was excited to see the space, which includes a metal sculpture of geese in flight on the outside wall to honor his commitment to Bluff Lake.

Ho, a regular contributor to Front Porch, called the new buildings “amazing” and said he hopes young people will continue to be exposed to nature. “If children get involved early on, it doesn’t get better than that,” he said.

There were plenty of children at the grand-opening event, meeting a giant blue duck mascot and making their way to the lake on a scavenger hunt, with a “wow” at each turn of the ramp as they spotted a sign with a bug, bird, or animal.

And almost on cue, as excited families descended the bluff, that bald eagle circled in the blue sky; a vivid reminder of the nature that can be seen in this area in the middle of the city.

“We did this for the community, to be able to use and love Bluff Lake,” Hutchens said.”It will  be here for a long time.”