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Trinity
River Audubon Center
Dallas, TX
2008
The site for the new Great Trinity
Forest Audubon Center is located at the meeting point between the Blackland
Prairie and Cross Timbers regions in southwestern Dallas. The restored
100 acre Deepwoods site was once one of the largest illegal dumps in Texas
and now serves as a gateway to the Great Trinity Forest, the largest urban
forest in the United States, running north to south though the city of
Dallas. The building’s program focuses on environmental education
and serves as a trailhead for an extensive network of hiking, biking,
and nature trails extending though the Trinity forest and along the Trinity
River.
The Trinity River crosses through an area described by naturalists as
the biological “cross-roads of North America”. The site embodies
a special sense of place with a tangible connection to Trinity River and
Provides a welcomed counter-point to urban Dallas. Visitors approach the
new center on an entry boardwalk weaving though reconstituted prairie,
wetlands and slivers of forest. Oblique views to reconstituted wetlands
are framed as the boardwalk tracks along the suspended educational “Treehouse”
wing of the center.
The Treehouse descends and visitors on the boardwalk ascend to meet at
an entry deck where they can assemble and view a diversity of wetland
bird species drawn to the site by the reconstituted wetlands. Upon entering
the building visitors can continue their descent from sky to earth in
the Interpretative Center’s Exhibit wing. Clad in Cor-Ten steel
with idiosyncratic apertures providing views from the exhibits to focal
landscape events. The openings allow ledges for birds; native plants are
integrated into the walls to attract butterflies; sitting areas and artifact
boxes encourage interaction and graffiti walls allow children to record
their observations. A large glazed aperture at the east, canted to reduce
accidental bird kills, leads to the outdoor “Earthwork” landscape
garden carving into the earth and giving access to an underwater view
of the wetland pond.
Rough board formed integrally colored green concrete encloses the volunteer
and staff work spaces as well as the store and café. A prairie
grass plane rises from below the Treehouse and projects over the work
area with a prairie grass roof. Recycled and sustainable materials are
used throughout the building. On site wastewater treatment, rainwater
collection and possible photovoltaic roofing will ensure a high LEED rating.
The design for the Trinity Audubon Center and its restored site deeply
embody values of conservation of bio-diversity though habitat restoration
and reclamation.
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