---

Highlands Center Receives Prestigious National Grant

A National Green Building Initiative

The Kresge Foundation has awarded the Highlands Center for Natural History $54,000 from their Green Building Initiative.  This prestigious award will support the green design and planning for the James Learning Center on the Lynx Creek Site.  The Kresge Foundation, headquartered in Troy, Michigan, was created in 1924 by Sebastian S. Kresge and has assets of $2.4 billion.  Its core grant-making program focuses on opportunities to strengthen leadership and giving through challenge grants for capital projects.  In addition to its core program, the Foundation has launched a national Green Building Initiative which provides planning and bonus grants, as well as educational information, for nonprofit organizations interested in sustainable building and design.

Since the Highlands Center Incorporation in 1996, planning by board and staff for the new educational center has been dedicated to a campus that models sustainable development.  This is reflected in a key element of their mission:  Helping children and adults become wise caretakers of the land.”  Other benefits of sustainable design to the Highlands Center include energy savings, water use reduction, natural wastewater treatment (use of constructed wetlands), reduced pollution and fossil fuel reliance through use of renewable energy sources, and increased staff productivity through the design of a healthy indoor environment.

The complete development of the new Lynx Creek Site has been based on minimal impact and sustainable building practices.  Phase 3 of construction of the James Learning Center will seek a U.S. Green Building Council LEED  (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification.  The LEED Rating System is a set of guidelines that evaluate environmental performance and provide a definitive standard to measure and document green building goals.

What Is Green Building? 

Essentially, green building emulates nature’s wisdom in the design of buildings and other human needs – the use of natural energies, resource efficiency, recycling, stacking functions, cooperative systems, and other wonderful models that nature provides.  Green building focuses on resource efficiency, materials selection, and the integration of systems to minimize environmental impact, improve health and productivity, and save money.

The site work to date at the new Highlands Center site on Walker Road has included site-sensitive landscaping and trails systems, as well as the construction of an amphitheater and restroom facilities – all powered by solar energy.  Windows and daylighting tubes in the restroom facility assure that no daytime lighting is necessary.  The Center has a rooftop rainwater collection system and constructed wetlands to efficiently deal with wastewater.  Many of the landscaping plants were salvaged from the site before construction and held in a nursery for re-vegetation use.  A water-saving drip-system was installed to establish new plantings, and only native species were used in re-vegetation.

The design team for this project is lead by CATALYST ARCHITECTURE, LLC featuring LEED accredited architects Matthew B. Ackerman, AIA and Jeffrey L. Zucker, AIA.  CATALYST ARCHITECTURE, LLC is a local architectural design firm known for their longstanding commitment to earth-friendly design and sustainable construction technologies.  CATALYST ARCHITECTURE was awarded the contract following a rigorous selection process from an initial field of seven invited firms.  Haley Construction Company is the general contractor and planning team consultant.

Executive Director Nichole Trushell states, “As a regional environmental education center, the Highlands Center takes responsibility to demonstrate and provide quality educational programs and materials.  Green building education is important as Yavapai County continues to grow.  Forecasts by the Arizona Department of Economic Security for the next ten years indicate a growth rate of 40% in Central Arizona with this county named as the fastest growing in the state.  Now more than ever, green building education can positively impact the long-term development of Central Arizona.”  The Center also wants to support the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2015) which aims to promote education as a basis for a more sustainable human society and to integrate sustainable development into education systems at all levels.

Ms. Trushell assures that Highlands Center programs will continue throughout the design and construction of the new facility.  More information on the design and construction of the new James Learning Center is available at the current office location in the Gateway Mall.  Site tours will also be available when construction begins later this year.  Call 776-9550 for details.

---