Toyota, the third-large automaker by unit sales in the U.S., has made a $1 million donation to Yellowstone National Park’s Yellowstone Park Foundation, which will be used to support the development of a more energy efficient Youth Campus.
The Yellowstone Youth Campus, designed by Portland, Ore.-based Hennebery Eddy Architects, will be a home for immersive, youth-oriented programming within the park. The on-campus buildings also aspire to be the first in a national park to achieve Living Building Challenge certification, whose design and construction standards integrate ecology, cultural heritage, stewardship, sustainability, and leadership.
Details about the upgrading of the Youth Campus—such as its total cost, and when construction is expected to start and finish—have yet to be made public. The architect and Toyota deferred questions to the park’s public affairs office, which was unable to provide BD+C with more information about the plans.
Toyota released the news about its donation to align with the centennial anniversary of the National Park Service this year. President Ulysses S. Grant signed a bill into law on March 1, 1872 that established Yellowstone National Park as the world’s first national park.
What’s known is this: once the design is finalized, the campus’s Youth Conservation Corps, which consists of two buildings, will be razed. New buildings will be far more energy efficient, thanks to high-performance insulation and windows, natural ventilation, and other passive measures. Only nontoxic and low VOC building materials and furnishings will be used.
Solar will provide more than 100% of the campus’s energy needs. All of the water used by the campus will be locally sourced, and wastewater will be treated onsite for reuse.
Once completed, the buildings will serve as the home for two youth programs: Expedition Yellowstone, which brings in grade-school aged kids from disadvantaged neighborhoods for a weeklong residential experience; and Youth Conservation Corps, a month-long immersive summer program for high schoolers. The new facilities— which will include four classrooms, residential buildings, and staff housing—will serve twice the campus’s current student capacity. (The Yellowstone public affairs office could not provide its current student count.)
The Youth Campus will include classrooms and residences, and have room to double its current student enrollment. Image: Hennebery Eddy Architects
“The new Yellowstone Youth Campus is an opportunity to support the conservation principles of the National Park Service, while reinforcing Toyota’s commitment to the environment,” said Toyota Motor North America Environmental General Manager Kevin Butt. “We hope this environmental learning center will inspire and empower future leaders in building a more culturally aware, ecologically responsible and regenerative future.”
Toyota has donated to Yellowstone before, most notably $1 million to the Foundation to help build the new Old Faithful Visitor Education Center, which opened in 2010. The carmaker last year collaborated with the Lamar Buffalo Ranch, which is located in Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley, by donating a set of Camry hybrid car batteries that were integrated into the ranch’s new renewable energy array.
One of the purposes of the Youth Campus is to give young Americans a better appreciation of nature and conservation. Image: Hennebery Eddy Architects.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Biograph Theater
Located in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood, Victory Gardens Theater Company has welcomed up-and-coming playwrights for 33 years. In 2004, the company expanded its campus with the purchase of the Biograph Theater for its new main stage. Built in 1914, the theater was one of the city's oldest remaining neighborhood movie houses, and it was part of Chicago's gangster lore: in 1934, John Dillin...
| Aug 11, 2010
Top of the rock—Observation deck at Rockefeller Center
Opened in 1933, the observation deck at Rockefeller Center was designed to evoke the elegant promenades found on the period's luxury transatlantic liners—only with views of the city's skyline instead of the ocean. In 1986 this cultural landmark was closed to the public and sat unused for almost two decades.
| Aug 11, 2010
Putting the Metal to the Petal
The Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine was founded in 1985, but the organization didn't have a permanent home until May 2008. That's when the Michael Klahr Center, which houses the HHRC, opened on the Augusta campus of the University of Maine. The design, by Boston-based architects Shepley Bulfinch Richardson & Abbott, was selected from among more than 200 entries in a university-s...
| Aug 11, 2010
Jefferson Would Be Proud
The Virginia State Capitol Building—originally designed by Thomas Jefferson and almost as old as the nation itself—has proudly served as the oldest continuously used Capitol in the U.S. But more than two centuries of wear and tear put the historical landmark at the head of the line for restoration.
| Aug 11, 2010
Let There Be Daylight
The new public library in Champaign, Ill., is drawing 2,100 patrons a day, up from 1,600 in 2007. The 122,600-sf facility, which opened in January 2008, certainly benefits from amenities that the old 40,000-sf library didn't have—electronic check-in and check-out, new computers, an onsite coffeehouse.
| Aug 11, 2010
American Tobacco Project: Turning over a new leaf
As part of a major revitalization of downtown Durham, N.C., locally based Capitol Broadcasting Company decided to transform the American Tobacco Company's derelict 16-acre industrial plant, which symbolized the city for more than a century, into a lively and attractive mixed-use development. Although tearing down and rebuilding the property would have made more economic sense, the greater goal ...
| Aug 11, 2010
Bronze Award: Alumni Gymnasium Renovation, Dartmouth College Hanover, N.H.
At a time when institutions of higher learning are spending tens of millions of dollars erecting massive, cutting-edge recreation and fitness centers, Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., decided to take a more modest, historical approach. Instead of building an ultra-grand new facility, the university chose to breathe new life into its landmark Alumni Gymnasium by transforming the outdated 99-y...
| Aug 11, 2010
Fleet Library, Rhode Island School of Design
When tasked with transforming an early 1920s Italian Renaissance bank building into a fully functional library for the Rhode Island School of Design, the Building Team for RISD's Fleet Library found itself at odds with the project's two main goals. On the one hand, the team would have to carefully restore and preserve the historic charm and ornate architectural details of the landmark space, d...
| Aug 11, 2010
Gold Award: The Lion House, Bronx Zoo Bronx, N.Y.
Astor Court sits at the heart of the 265-acre Bronx Zoo, and its six Beaux Arts buildings were constructed at the turn of the 20th century to house exotic animals from around the world. When the Lion House was built in 1903, the brick and limestone facility was considered state-of-the-art, but as standards of animal care advanced, the lions were moved into a more natural setting, and the Lion H...
| Aug 11, 2010
The pride of Pasadena
As a shining symbol of civic pride in Los Angeles County, Pasadena City Hall stood as the stately centerpiece of Pasadena's Civic Center since 1927. To the casual observer, the rectangular edifice, designed by San Francisco Classicists John Bakewell, Jr., and Arthur Brown, Jr., appeared to be aging gracefully.
