In Ketchum, Idaho, it’s common to see dogs chasing after balls in a field that was once a golf course. The 65-acre Warm Springs Preserve was acquired by the city located east of Boise in 2022, ensuring its future use as a place of respite and recreation. Soon, cross-country skiers will traverse trails and a creek will flow smoothly again on the landscape that’s being restored as a natural floodplain.
The firm behind the restoration and redesign is Superbloom, a Denver-based practice led by Diane Lipovsky and Stacy Passmore, founded in 2021. The firm also worked on Denver’s Populus Hotel with Studio Gang, slated to open later this year.
Long before golfers teed off on the land, the property was settled as a ranch and farm. The region is largely associated with Sun Valley, a ski resort town where the likes of Ernest Hemingway and Clark Gable once tramped in the snow. Warm Springs Preserve abuts a mountain range and is slated to become a place for passive recreation activities, which means no playgrounds or delineated sports fields.
The restoration comes after a series of alternative ideas for the site. Several years ago, a plan circulated to convert the fairways into private residences. This ushered in adamant community support for an alternative use, something public, please, not private. The community rallied and pulled together $9.5 million to purchase the land from a developer to ensure its protection—$8 million went to purchasing the property and $1 million is held in reserve for irrigation improvements.
Now, a master plan by the City of Ketchum, Wood River Land Trust, and Superbloom, is underway. Work will improve accessibility; restore the creek, floodplain, and natural habitat; while adding a slew of new, but passive, recreational opportunities.
Superbloom described the project as encompassing three old fairways: the first will be maintained as lawn ideal for a dog park, the second will be converted into a “native meadow,” and the third area will be lowered to meet the creek and allow for a connection to the floodplain.
While some projects planned for the preserve are straight forward—the installation of a meandering boardwalk for access through the wetlands, and interpretive signage—others require more attention. Given its recent use as a golf course, the site is equipped with a robust irrigation system, albeit a broken one. The 30-year-old system leaks and wastes a considerable amount of water. In the revamp and restoration for Warm Springs Preserve, Superbloom seeks to install an alternative that would lower water demand. This will involve reducing the amount of area dedicated for lawn use and allocating more land area to a restored natural floodplain.
“A lot of times people think preservation or restoration is just additive, add plants. But there’s a lot of earth working that goes into creating a ‘more natural floodplain’,” Lipovsky told AN.
A geomorphologist, Rio Applied Science and Engineering, will execute these “major earthworks” needed to restore the habitat. Among these mighty tasks are reverting the streams and creeks to their more sinuous forms—the straightening of waterways overtime is the result of factors such as natural erosion and sediment movement.
When it comes to plantings for the site, the goal is to maintain a riparian woodland environment, wherein the greenery and habitat adjacent to bodies of water flourishes. A local nursery will make visits to the site and collect seeds and make cuttings to restore and inform planting needs. But the work doesn’t stop when the soil is laid.
“In terms of landscape construction, it’s almost never finished,” Lipovsky added. “Contractors can leave the site. But plants are growing, plants are changing. They’re competing for our resources.”
“We can plan and design and set our intentions for where we think things will go, but we also are trying to work with the dynamic systems and so unlike a piece of architecture, we are trying to think of it as a fluid, kind of dynamic piece of living infrastructure.”
Already ski trails and disc golf baskets have been installed, with signage and wayfinding to be added later this year. When the park fully opens the responsibility of long-term upkeep will fall on the City of Ketchum and Wood River Land Trust, a local nonprofit that shepherds a number of similar landscapes nearby. The large-scale restoration efforts are slated to begin in 2025. Recently the project was awarded a $1.7 million grant from the Bureau of Reclamation and the project is also working closely with the Army Corps to make sure no flooding impacts nearby private residences.
