The new Environmental Exploration Center is sited adjacent to the existing 800-SF classroom building. GWWO provided schematic design services for the building as well as landscape design services for the area immediately surrounding the new building. The Berks Conservancy believes “that nature is essential to our quality of life” and so the goal of the Environmental Exploration Center is to connect people to nature.

The building is simple, functional, and serves as a demonstration of the Conservancy’s environmental and conservation principles related to green building, energy stewardship, and sustainable development. The Center serves as a space for education classrooms, community meetings, and administration space for the Conservancy.

The Nature Place is certified LEED Gold and has many Green Design features including, 100 percent of the building’s energy use offset by wind power, reclaimed and building recycled materials, light-colored roofing that reflects rather than absorbs the sun’s rays, horizontal sun shades that act like visors on the windows, minimizing solar heat gain and glare inside the building, state-of-the-art bird-strike resistant glass, rain gardens to manage the building’s stormwater, a Monarch-Way Station & Pollinator Garden, and daylight sensors to automatically dim the lights in the building when the sun is shining.

The first level consists of a lobby, large conference room, kitchenette, group toilets, “clean” classroom, “dirty” classroom, deck, mechanical, and electrical room. The second level consists of a small conference room, flexible open office space, kitchenette, toilet, storage areas, and a deck.