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Benchmark Study

CATALYST ARCHITECTURE

Benchmark Study

Highlands Center for Natural History: James Environmental Learning Center

Owner non-profit

USFS lease

Location Prescott, Arizona

Size 4,500 Sq.Ft. + trails

Audience school children,

general community 10,000 people annually

Program(s) Day Camps

Family Programs School Programs

Field Studies Lectures

Workshops Activities

Facilities administrative offices,

classroom, gift shop,

library, outdoor amphitheater

www.highlandscenter.org

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Mission “The Highlands Center helps children and adults discover the wonders of nature and become wise caretakers of the land. We believe that everyone has a fundamental need to connect with the natural world. This connection is fostered by the Center through outdoor-science education based on observation and discovery of the Central Arizona Highlands.”


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“Through day camps, family programs, school programs, field studies, lectures, workshops, and other activities we reach over 10,000 children and adults each year.

Our 3-mile trail system is the gateway to Lynx Creek and other Prescott National Forest trails. Our beautiful campus, showcasing practical green building strategies, includes our administrative offices, an outdoor amphitheater, a large indoor classroom facility, a library, and gift shop. The adjacent grounds model water conservation, fire-wise landscaping, and the use of native plants in re-vegetation. The site is operated under a Special Use Permit with Prescott National Forest.

In our classroom without walls visitors discover ponderosa pine covered valleys, deeply-shaded riparian habitats, chaparral and woodland covered hillsides, remarkable geologic formations, and amazing vistas.”

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Westcave Preserve: Warren Skaaren Environmental Learning Center

Owner non-profit +

government agency

Location Round Mountain, TX

(near Austin)

Size 3K Sq.Ft. building, 2K Sq.Ft. sheltered

outdoor space, 75 acre preserve

Audience school children,

families

Program(s) environmental education,

trail tours, birding, geology, natural history

Facilities Visitors Center,

Headquarters, Manager's Residence interpretive exhibitry

www.westcave.org

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Mission “Westcave Preserve’s mission is to inspire kids and their families to develop lifelong practices of getting outside and enjoying nature. We connect kids and their families to nature by providing experiences and programs that foster the discovery, exploration, and conservation of the natural world.”


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“The Warren Skaaren Environmental Learning Center (ELC) at Westcave Preserve opened to the public on the vernal equinox, March 22, 2003. The ELC functions as a visitor center and also offers much needed classroom space for the Preserve's public and school programs.

The building is a model of sustainable building design including such features as ground-source heating cooling, a solar energy panel, and a rainwater harvesting system.”

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Rio Grande Nature Center

Owner non-profit +

government agency

Location Albuquerque, NM

Size 5,500 Sq.Ft. building

170 acres

Audience general public, school

groups, teachers (130,000 visitors

annually—12,000 of those are school children)

Program(s) Nature walks

Bird walks Twilight hikes

Teacher workshops Seasonal classes

Special events

Facilities Visitors Center,

Trails, Demonstration gardens,

Hands-on exhibits, viewing blinds

www.rgnc.org

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Mission “To preserve and protect the Rio Grande bosque, to educate the public about Rio Grande ecosystems, and to foster positive human interactions with those systems.”


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“The Rio Grande Nature Center and Preserve is a symbol of a profoundly important, but rapidly diminishing New Mexico ecosystem. The open fields are vestiges of a beautiful pastoral setting which once stretched the length of the city. The natural wetlands still harbor a diverse set of environments that sharply contrast with those of the upland semi-arid mesas. Acquisition of the site by the State of New Mexico offered a unique opportunity to maintain the important connections between the city and the river, its symbiotic agricultural development and a prime wildfowl preserve located in a migratory fly way.”

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Urban Ecology Center

Owner non-profit

Location Milwaukee, WI

Size 19,000 Sq.Ft.

Audience Schools/Teachers Families and kids Adults and Teens

Youth Group Leaders

Program(s) Urban Adventures,

Citizen Science, Summer Day Camp,

Adult Lectures, Workshops,

Weekend Family and Youth Programs,

Stewardship, High School Outdoor

Leadership, Internships,

Community Interest Groups

Facilities Neighborhood-based

environmental education community center +

“Outdoor Laboratories”

www.urbanecologycenter.org

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Mission “The Urban Ecology Center fosters ecological understanding as inspiration for change, neighborhood by neighborhood.

• Provide outdoor science education for urban youth.

• Protect and use public natural areas, making them safe, accessible and vibrant.

• Preserve and enhance these natural areas and their surrounding waters.

• Promote community by offering resources that support learning, volunteerism, stewardship, recreation, and camaraderie.

• Practice and model environmentally responsible behaviors.”

In all that we do, process is as important as the end

product, and everything has a community focus...—we spell “Community”

with a capital “C”.


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“The Urban Ecology Center is a neighborhood-based, environmental education, nonprofit community center. Our “outdoor laboratories,” located in two urban parks, include 15 acres of wooded land and riparian habitat on the east bank of the Milwaukee River, an imaginative, habitat-themed playground, and a lagoon. The “green” building in Riverside Park that houses our main offices, resource areas and classrooms is home to live animals, informational exhibits and user-friendly resource materials about the environment.”

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Willow Bend Nature Center

Owner non-profit (funded by government mandate)

Location Flagstaff, AZ

Size Approx. 1800 Sq.Ft.

Audience Schools/Teachers

General Public

Program(s) in-classroom programs,

school field trips, environmental education

check-out kits, family science events, adult

education, community events

Facilities Education center

Native gardens Alternative-fuel vehicle

www.willowbendcenter.org

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Mission “Our goal is to help people make mindful choices that are healthier for themselves, our community, and the planet.”


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“We lead by example with our passive-solar, straw-bale education center, as well as by our low-water native gardens, alternatively fueled vehicle, on-demand water heater, energy star office equipment, energy-efficient lighting, composting, and more.

Willow Bend is located at Flagstaff’s Sawmill Park, part of Coconino County Parks & Recreation Department. Certified as “backyard wildlife habitat” by the National Wildlife Federation, our gardens feature a small pond and plants native to the Colorado Plateau — unique communities such as desert scrub, meadow, forest, and native edible and heritage crops.”


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Leopold Legacy Center

Owner non-profit

Location Baraboo, WI

Size 12,000 Sq.Ft.

Audience General Public

Public/Private Leaders Families

Program(s) Tours

Education and Outreach Land Ethic Leaders Program

The Woodland School Special Events

Seminars Speaking

Facilities Rural nature center

Leopold Family Shack 300 surrounding acres

www.urbanecologycenter.org

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Mission “To weave a land ethic into the fabric of our society; to advance the understanding, stewardship and restoration of land health; and to cultivate leadership for conservation.”

“Leopold's words have stirred many to a personal ecological awareness.

The foundation's goal is to share the legacy of Aldo Leopold and to

awaken an ecological conscience in the people of our nation. As long as we care about people, land, and the

connections between them, we have hope for sustainable ecosystems,

sustainable economies, and sustainable communities.”


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“Leopold regarded a land ethic as a product of social evolution.

“Nothing so important as an ethic is ever ‘written,’” he explained. “It evolves ‘in the minds of a thinking community.’”

The foundation's membership forms a modern day "thinking community," and the foundation's programs create opportunities for rich, diverse, and productive dialogue with members and others about humanity’s relationships to land, allowing the idea of a land ethic to unfold in myriad ways.”

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Arizona Sonora Desert Museum

Owner non-profit

Location Tucson, AZ

Size 12,500 Sq.Ft.

Audience Schools/Youth

Adults

Program(s) community outreach/

mobile animal exhibits/ conservation through art

education/ conservation and

ecological research/ advising museum staff,

other conservation organizations, and the public

Facilities Natural history museum,

zoo, botanical gardens, conservation ecology and environmental education

center, restaurant, gift shop, art gallery.

www.desertmuseum.org

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Mission “To inspire people to live in harmony with the natural world by fostering love, appreciation, and understanding of the Sonoran Desert.”


“In a nutshell the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is a

world-renowned zoo, natural history museum

and botanical garden, all in one place!”

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“For a half-century the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum has enchanted millions of visitors with its exhibits of live animals in astonishingly natural settings, while intriguing and instructing them with fascinating educational programs. At the same time, the Museum has gained a worldwide repute in the scientific community as an institution committed to researching and protecting the land, plants, and the animals of the Sonoran Desert Region.”

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San Luis NaMonal Wildlife Refuge Visitors Center

Owner Federal

Location Los Banos, CA

Size 16,800 Sq.Ft.


Program(s) Conservation, Preservation,

Public education, Hunting

Facilities Visitors Center

Administration/HQ 26,000 acre refuge

www.fws.gov/sanluis/sanluis_info.htm

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Mission “The Mission of the National Wildlife Refuge System is to administer a national network of lands and waters for the conservation, management, and where appropriate, restoration of the fish, wildlife, and plant resources and their habitats within the United States for the benefit of present and future generations of Americans. ”

“We are land stewards, guided by Aldo Leopold's teachings that land is a

community of life and that love and respect for the land is an extension of ethics. We

seek to reflect that land ethic in our stewardship and to instill it in others.”


Benchmark Study This LEED-Platinum seeking facility is the largest ARRA-funded USFWS project in the nation. The San Luis National Wildlife Refuge (SLNWR) will be the first Less-Than-Zero Energy design within the USFWS system.

Carefully integrated passive solar and mechanical systems will manage the indoor environment for efficiency and comfort. Some of the ecologically-conscious features of the building include the use of recycled, reused, regional and low-emitting materials; water conserving fixtures. LED lighting; natural daylighting; passive heating and cooling; high albedo roofing; and showers, bike racks, and carpool-friendly parking to encourage alternative transportation.

The Visitor Center Complex celebrated its Grand Opening in August 2011.

--Catalyst Architecture


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Hagerman NaMonal Wildlife Refuge Visitors Center

Owner Federal

Location Sherman, TX

Size 7,000 Sq.Ft.


Program(s) Conservation, Preservation,

Public education, Hunting, Boating, Fishing, Hiking, Birding

Facilities Visitors Center

Administration/HQ 12,000 acre refuge

www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/texas/hagerman/

Benchmark Study

Mission


“The Mission of the National Wildlife Refuge System is to administer a national network of lands and waters for the conservation, management, and where appropriate, restoration of the fish, wildlife, and plant resources and their habitats within the United States for the benefit of present and future generations of Americans. ”

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Commissioned to replace a previous structure, the Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center and Administrative Complex features local Texas limestone, integrated trellises planted with a native grape species, canted windows for bird-strike mitigation and reduced solar heat gain, and light shelves and vertical ‘fins’ to prevent overheating from east and west glazing. The long-awaited Visitor Center and Administrative Complex celebrated its Grand Opening July 2011.

-- Catalyst Architecture


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