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At Kendall Apartments, an affordable housing community in Lakewood, Colo., children play Nerf wars, soccer and “groundies,” the don’t-touch-the-ground version of tag. They swing from monkey bars and scale a rope net amid the smell of fresh cedar.

Resident parents are thrilled — their children, about 65 in all, now have a safe and spacious space to play. The old area was small and crumbling.

Open since June, the new playground is the latest studio project by undergraduate environmental design students at ����ֱ�� Boulder. Predecessors dreamed up and built a tree office and a sustainable bathhouse.

The six-month project, led by instructor Jeremy Ehly, involved interviewing parents and children, obtaining zoning permits, regrading the site and designing and building four separate play areas. The 18 ����ֱ�� students also raised more than $36,000 for material costs, including a $25,000 donation from the Northeast Denver Housing Center.

“When we first started the semester, I was completely taken aback by how ambitious we were attempting to be,” said Jesse Koenig (���Ա��ٱ��’17).

But they pulled it off, to squeals of joy.

“While we were putting our finishing touches on and cleaning up everything, the kids kept asking us, ‘Is it ready, can I play?’” said senior Anne Mosites (Arch’18). “We had to power wash everything as our last step and the kids started playing the minute we were done; they didn’t even care that it was soaking wet.”

The ����ֱ�� students felt good, too — and were ready for more.

Said Ehly, the instructor, “They’ve already been pitching me projects.”

Photos by Jeremy Ehly