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The Award
This Award recognizes a community member in Colorado who has significantly contributed to the advancement of architecture from a vantage point outside of a firm or a traditional practice career.
Dr. Lydia Prado, PhD – as awarded by Julianne Scherer, AIA, 2024 AIA Colorado President
The official title of our recipient is Executive Director of Lifespan Local, but her unofficial role is place maker. Under her leadership, Lifespan Local is revolutionizing mental health care in Colorado, centering services in the context of community well-being and addressing connections between physical health, mental health and–of special relevance to this audience–creating spaces that enable people to influence the decisions that affect their own lives.
An accidental developer, she saw that the social determinants of health are primarily architecture challenges: lack of dignified housing, unsafe community gathering spaces, under-resourced healthy eating and living options, developments that don’t engage neighbors or end users. Rather than issue a challenge or publish research, she committed to testing whether better outcomes are possible through better places, partnering with architects to make it happen at the Dahlia Campus and Westwood Redeemer.
Sometimes it takes a non-architect to remind us of the power we have been given and the impact our decisions have on the health of communities. For proving that design makes a difference in the lives of Southwest Denver residents, I’m humbled and honored to recognize Dr. Lydia Prado with the 2024 AIA Colorado Presidents Award.
Dr. Lydia Prado is the Executive Director of Lifespan Local, which activates community-driven solutions to collectively identified challenges by partnering across sectors, breaking barriers and elevating community voices. By maximizing sustainable assets within a neighborhood, Lifespan Local is able to reimagine what is possible, creating community spaces where health and wellness thrive.
Dr. Prado approaches her work from a systems and strengths-based perspective, with an emphasis on diversity, equity and community-based leadership. Dr. Prado is a place-maker, convening partners with a shared commitment to healthy living and social change.
Before starting Lifespan Local, Dr. Prado spent 17 years with the Mental Health Center of Denver as the Vice President of Child & Family Services. She is the project visionary behind the Mental Health Center of Denver’s Dahlia Campus for Health & Well-Being, an innovative community center in Northeast Park Hill that promotes well-being across the lifespan. The site features an inclusive preschool, a full service dental clinic for children, a one acre urban farm, 5,400 sq ft aquaponics greenhouse, horticultural therapy spaces, community gardens, teaching kitchen, community room, gymnasium and a full array of mental health services for all ages.