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The Ogden Nature Center (ONC) is a 152-acre wildlife habitat dedicated to environmental education and to the preservation of Utah’s natural heritage. EDA Architects has worked with the ONC since 1993, designing both its Interpretive Center (completed in 1995), its L. S. Peery Education Center (completed in 2003), and–most recently—its comprehensive master plan (completed in the Spring of 2018).
The L. S. Peery Environmental Education Center provides two state-of-the art classrooms, six offices for teacher/naturalists, restrooms, meeting spaces, a volunteer room with an adjacent volunteer coordinator’s office, and a foyer/gallery space. (Administrative and visitor services functions are housed at the adjacent Visitors Center.) The Center accommodates over 20,000 visitors a year, who participate in the ONC’s schools program, community classes, pre-school programs, and summer camps.
The building also serves as a “teacher”, incorporating a variety of environmentally sustainable materials and systems, interpreted through a range of both passive and interactive exhibits. Special features of the building include straw-bale/earthen plaster walls, salvaged lumber, passive and active heating and cooling systems (displacement evaporative cooling, radiant flooring, operable windows and a heat chimney) and natural/adaptive artificial lighting. 100% of the building’s energy is supplied by roof-mounted photovoltaics.