Posted: 5:28 pm Thu, May 12, 2011
By ?BRIAN JOHNSON
Three Rivers Park District will break ground in June on a new $5.1 million nature center to replace the existing facility, pictured, in Dayton. (Staff Photo: Bill Klotz)
If anyone says the forthcoming Eastman Nature Center is for the birds, the project team will take it as a compliment.
Scheduled to break ground in June, the $5.1 million, 13,000-square-foot building - which will replace a smaller center at 13351 Elm Creek Road in Dayton - has a bird-friendly design that is fitting for a nature center.
Project architect Sam Olbekson of Minneapolis-based Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle said the entire south fa?ade of the building is tilted 10 degrees down to prevent ?bird strikes? on the glass.
?The tilting allows birds to see the reflection of the ground, providing the visual clue that allows them to understand there is an obstacle in front of them,? Olbekson explained.
Bird safety is an emerging focus for green building, along with more traditional concerns like energy and water conservation and indoor air quality.
Rick Carter of LHB, an architecture and engineering firm with offices in Minneapolis and Duluth, said a ?bird-safe guideline? is being developed for the B3 Minnesota Sustainable Building Guidelines, which address things like energy consumption, indoor air quality and long-term operating costs.
Minnesota should have a bird safety guideline ready by this summer, said Jonee Kulman Brigham, an architect and research coordinator with the Center for Sustainable Building Research at the University of Minnesota.
Under Minnesota law, new buildings and major renovations that receive state bonding money are required to follow the B3 guidelines. The bird safety provision would include a mix of requirements and recommendations.
Last December, Audubon Minnesota received a $20,000 grant from the National Audubon Society and Toyota to promote bird-safe building design strategies. Toronto, New York, Chicago and San Francisco either have bird-safe building guidelines or are working on them, Kulman Brigham said.
?Bird strikes? throughout the country are fueling the trend.
The New York City Audubon Society?s ?Bird Safe Building Guidelines? estimate that ?100 million to 1 billion? birds die each year in the United States from ?encounters with buildings.?
According to the society, birds crash into buildings because they cannot detect glass as an obstacle, and that such crashes occur on structures and windows of all sizes and in all weather conditions.
An early aerial sketch shows how the new Eastman Nature Center in Dayton will fit within the park context. (Submitted rendering: Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle)
Buildings with landscaped courtyards and those close to wetlands are especially strong candidates for bird strikes, particularly if the area is ?prone to haze, fog, mist and/or low-lying clouds,? according to the society.
In addition to sloped facades, bird safety features include glazing treatments or patterns to give birds a visual clue that an obstacle lies ahead, and turning off exterior lights that can attract birds.
Simply put, ?the goal is to make the glass visible to birds,? Kulman Brigham said.
Jason Zemke, project manager for the Three Rivers Park District, which is building the Eastman Nature Center, said a sloped fa?ade makes sense for that project because the facade will face an outdoor bird feeder area.
Besides protecting birds, the sloped fa?ade adds a nice architectural element to the building, he said.
Zemke said the sloped design adds ?a pretty significant cost? to the project, though he did not have the exact estimate. Still, he said, ?we felt we better start to walk the walk [on bird-safe design] instead of just talking about it.?
The Eastman Nature Center will offer an array of typical environmentally friendly features, including geothermal heating and cooling, solar thermal panels, and highly efficient light and water fixtures.
The project will use recycled materials in its pavement and building designs, such as ?glu-lam? (glued laminated timber) structural beams salvaged from the 38-year-old building it will replace.
Money from the state Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment - which raised the sales tax to support environmental and cultural initiatives - and a Metropolitan Council grant will pay for the new building. The center will have an exhibit hall, three classrooms, offices, a wildlife observation room, a reading room, an exterior deck and storage space.
The center, scheduled for completion in the summer of 2012, is following Minnesota?s B3 guidelines, Olbekson said.
Similar to B3, the U.S. Green Building Council is working on a bird safety credit for its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building program.
Green building preserves native vegetation and natural areas, which ?makes the property more attractive to birds,? Kulman Brigham said. So bird safety ?is part of the whole package of environmental responsibility.?
More:
New York Audubon Society
Minnesota Sustainable Building Guidelines
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