Milwaukee's Urban Ecology Center
The
Designed by The Kubala Washatko Architects in relatively close collaboration with client and constructors, the four-story metal-sided timber frame building is bedecked with generous overhangs, wrap-around porches, and a large rooftop photovoltaic array. It sits at the intersection of a dense city neighborhood with several acres of once-decrepit Frederick Law Olmsted-designed park land, which the Urban Ecology Center is helping to rehabilitate.
Inside the building, the sense given by large open floors around a central brick-chimneyed atrium, exposed structure, high ceilings, and frank natural materials — including atrium balusters with bark intact — coalesces around the impression of a classic park lodge, daylit, comfortable, and rustically elegant.
In fact, the center functions in part as a kind of park lodge in the city. Specifically serving the residents in a two-mile radius around their east-side Milwaukee, Wisconsin location, the 20,000-square-foot (1,900-square-meter) Urban Ecology Center building supports a multifaceted outdoor recreation program for urban youth as well as science education, accredited research, citizen science, environmental appreciation, and green building.
To connect with nature, most environmental education centers have been set in the country, often in a nature preserve surrounded by living wildlife habitat. Fronting on a regular city street, while backing onto the acres of open space of
The main entrance to the building is on the south, past the rainwater-retention pond and a garage built of salvaged brick. The front doors enter straight into the main hall of the building, centered on a double-height space around a high-efficiency wood stove, with a modest reception area to the side. The warm wood paneling of the main interior space was donated by Menominee Tribal Enterprises from their sustainably managed forest — one of many gift and salvage elements integrated throughout construction.
Driven significantly by the approach of Ken Leinbach, the center's executive director, the Urban Ecology Center took an endlessly creative approach to the details and execution of sustainable building. The Center saw its construction project as an opportunity both for embodying environmental stewardship and for deepening community connections.
The couches and chairs framed with bark intact and the railings around the atrium carry some of the building's many stories. Ken worked with local premium furniture maker La Lune Collection, to have some of their naturally-finished woodwork made for the center from sustainable willow and poplar rather than their standard materials. The resulting process has evolved into a line of more sustainable furniture from La Lune.
The main space also exhibits the flexibility of space that helps the center function gracefully. Functioning as a large hall that can hold several dozen visitors, the space is also provides comfortable gathering places for small groups, with wall inflections, furniture groupings, and variations in ceiling height providing soft degrees of separation.
The pervasive spirit of play in this environmental education center appeals to children of all ages. From a small "secret" door on the north side, dual slides sweep down to the main space, through a passageway painted as a stream and its banks.
Behind the brick chimney and wood-paneled back wall of the main space, staff offices occupy three levels of a backstage realm. One office is paneled with wood from local high school bleachers, and another with wood from an 1850 mill. Staff area countertops are made from wheat board (ground wheat shafts bound with nontoxic glue), and the floors are covered with carpet made from recycled-rubber.
Staff and students and other visitors are encouraged to mingle at the common snack corner in the main space on each floor. One set of shared restrooms serves each floor as well.
The building's second floor continues the fun, flexible space. Subspaces can be defined by movable dividers, built economically with hollow-core-door construction, and painted pro-bono by a noted illustrator living in the neighborhood, with scenes of the adjacent
One anonymous wood-paneled wall includes a large pivoting section that opens to the "Camouflage Room." Donated carpet squares cover the floor in movable tilings which users are encouraged to rearrange. Windows provide ample daylight, which can be modulated by four ceiling-hung sliding mural panels, which rest neatly between the windows when not in use.
Outside, the second floor decks connect to a roof garden over the garage space. Even more exciting is the observation tower. The 75-foot (23-meter) tower offers an elevated perspective on the surrounding landscape. The parkland and river to the west and north are naturally beautiful, and the view also encompasses the harder beauty of post-industrial and neighborhood areas adjacent to the center in other directions. Also visible from the tower is the 44.4-kilowatt rooftop photovoltaic array, installed in 2007, which pumps electricity into the city's grid.
A controllable web cam atop the tower provides virtual access for those who can't climb its steps. On the north side of the tower is an extensive climbing wall. Members of the
The center simplified class access for the several schools in its two-mile (3.2-kilometer) service radius by getting its own fleet of small buses. Staff are encouraged to bike to work, and the basement includes showers and locker rooms for commuter support.
The center's Galvalume® corrugated steel roofing and siding is made from 80-percent recycled content and will be fully recyclable at the end of its life, which should be long and low in maintenance.
The center's gray-water system was challenging to plumb in a way that complied with current local building codes. Cisterns in the garage store up to 350 gallons of rainwater collected from the south-facing roof areas. To meet code, that water is treated onsite to drinking standards, and then used for flushing toilets. Overflow is directed to outdoor rain barrels and then underground to the pond via a pipe. The north-facing roof areas send water to a rain garden behind the building, with a path of porous Ecocrete™. The front driveway guides rain toward native plantings along the front walk.
Ken Leinbach and the project team searched and repeatedly found local used materials, from the wood floor of a old school gym that was given a second life on the Center's second floor, to the signature bricks of local brick makers — representing an industry with a long history in
As it turned out, these reclaimed materials brought with them priceless stories, threads of cultural continuity that could not have simply been purchased. In addition to their own physical history, in several cases the presence of specific salvaged materials led to human connections with the center for people who had had known them in past material lives. Small signs posted around the building share some of these reclaimed material stories.
For instance, the maple floor of the second story main space resonates for community members who lived with it, maybe went to their first dance, or an important basketball game, at the local school where the boards had served before.
Shortly after the building was finished and the expansive floor was revealed, it was recognized as filling a community void — there hadn't been a place to have local dances with all the life and enjoyment brought by a great old-fashioned wood floor.
Now the Center regularly hosts community dancing — and of course more people are exposed to the center and its goals. It was one of the many surprises to Ken that grew out of his thoughtful way of putting the center project together. He had no way of knowing just how far the construction project could go in connecting community to the organization.
Old bricks in the central chimney that helps warm the core of the building proudly display historic brick-maker names. On a tour of the newly-built center, one participant recognized her own family name on a brick. She asked Ken if he had any more of those bricks, hoping to reconnect to some of her family history.
Within weeks of the request, a different community member, clearing out his garage, offered Ken some additional bricks. One of those bricks matched the earlier visitor's family name. Ken was able to return this family artifact to her, found a new supporter for the center, and added another piece to the the larger story the
Guiding Lenses for Project Choices
Ken Leinbach explained a set of six filters or "guiding lenses" which were used by the
# Program and Fun Factor Can we make this decision in a way that will help, enhance, or add support to our organizational program offerings? How? Is there a way this could make our space more fun?
# Environment If our great grandchildren, seven generations out, were sitting here at the table with us, would they approve of this decision? If the coyote or the deer out in the meadow had a presence at the table with us, would they approve?
# Aesthetics Will this be aesthetically pleasing? We want people to come back over and over again, and don't want to sacrifice beauty for a purely functional, sustainable building.
For example, they chose cedar window treatments over alternatives that were visually less interesting. Although the cedar was considered sustainable, it was not the most environmentally friendly option.
# Politics Is this choice in keeping with a culture of respect for our neighbors?
Since the Urban Ecology Center is located on government land and adjacent to a residential neighborhood, this filter came into play especially with questions of building placement and the height of the tower. It was also applied to such issues as making sure the kitchen was fully up to commercial code, which prevented use of a particular eco-friendly flooring product. Labor practices of some building product manufacturers also came into play.
# Budget Can this choice be made in a way that helps our budget? Is there a way to make this choice about saving money that can enhance the life of the project?
This was asked cyclically throughout the
# Time Does making this choice add time to the project schedule?
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