| US Green Building Council Case Study: The Audobon Center in Debs Park | ||||||||
http://leedcasestudies.usgbc.org/overview.cfm?ProjectID=234
Overview
Located just ten minutes northeast of downtown Los Angeles, Ernest E. Debs Regional Park is a 282-acre urban wilderness owned by the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks. The Audubon Center at Debs Park occupies 17 acres of the park, leased from the City. The focus of the project is environmental education. The Center provides educational programs for the 50,000 schoolchildren who live within two miles of the park. It includes a multipurpose "Discovery Room," for teaching and displays, a library and meeting room, a reception area, a gift shop, and a catering kitchen. The Debs Park facility is part of the Audubon Society's focus on establishing Centers in urban and underserved communities. Environmental AspectsThe Audubon Center at Debs Park is the National Audubon Society's first nature center in California to be constructed from the ground up using environmentally sensitive design techniques. It is also the first building in the U.S. to achieve a Platinum rating under version 2 of the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED(R)) Rating System. The Center is operated entirely off-grid, using only power generated on site. It is expected to use only 25,000 kWh of energy each year (around five kWh per square foot). The Center is designed to use 70% less water than a comparable conventional building, and to treat all wastewater on site. More than 50% of the building materials were manufactured locally, and more than 97% of construction debris was recycled. The National Audubon Society plans to build a thousand urban facilities around the country by 2020. Owner & Occupancy
Building Programs
more » |
||||||||
| From LA Times 12/30/07: Audobon Scoping Out a Diverse Membership | ||
Audubon scoping out a diverse membership Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times LESSON: Audubon Society naturalist Gabriela Castaneda, left, checks out a bird map with visitor Maria Costa during a family bird walk Saturday at the Audubon Center at Debs Park in L.A. Spanish-speaking Audubon members are to begin recruiting in popular areas such as Lincoln Park and the Whittier Narrows Recreation Area. The society is recruiting in minority areas in L.A. and across the nation. Facing an uncertain future as its aging, mostly white membership begins to retire, the Audubon Society has launched an initiative to recruit a new generation of environmental stewards in minority neighborhoods in Los Angeles and across the nation. The 400,000 members of the nonprofit society -- which has protected birds from plume hunters and helped release California condors into the wild -- worry that their group is not connecting with the nation's ethnically diverse urban populations. A strong and diverse membership is key to influencing political decisions and raising funds to support its mission of conservation and environmental education, leaders said. "Most conservation organizations are run these days by white 50-something guys like me, and I'm hoping the next generation looks different," said John Flicker, president of the society. "I think the future image of the Audubon Society is a Latino family strolling through a wildlife sanctuary." With that goal in mind, the 4-year-old, $6.5-million Audubon Center at Debs Park -- a 282-acre island of lofty hills, grasslands and black walnut groves along the Pasadena Freeway in northeast Los Angeles -- sponsored its third pajarear en familia, or family bird walk, Saturday for Spanish-speaking visitors. |
||