Texas Architect

Westcave Preserve

Robert Jackson, AIA, and Michael McElhaney, AIA, had lots of time to think about the design of the learning center being planned for Westcave Preserve. For three years, Jackson and the client hauled around a slide show to solicit donations from various groups in Central Texas to fund the project. Many groups were attracted to the concept, but each inevitably would focus on a different aspect of environmental education. Whether it was solar energy or water conservation or geology, each group wanted to support opportunities to teach school kids about the one subject of that group's particular interest. So Jackson was motivated to consider how the slide presentation might be tailored to address each group's specific subject. As a result, the project benefited from a longer-than-usual design phase. "Things evolved because there was time," he recalled recently. "That can't happen in the typical six-month design period."

While his rendering of the learning center didn't change much in those three years, Jackson said the team introduced subtle modifications as the architects and client explored ways to integrate new educational programming within the project. As they worked out solutions to incorporate each new lesson topic, that topic seemed to connect to others. Take solar energy for instance. Installing a photovoltaic panel outside to collect solar energy led the architects and their client to add a power grid display inside that demonstrates how much of that infinitely renewable power is being stockpiled, while also showing how energy consumption is reduced when the building's electric lights and air conditioning are turned off. Then, during a trip to Rome, Jackson and McElhaney visited a 300-year-old church with a celestial observatory diagrammed on the floor. They realized by punching a small hole in the learning center's roof an image of the sun would track along the floor to illustrate the sun's movements through the day and over a year's time. Seen as individual events, each activity teaches a compelling lesson. But when seen in relation to the other activities, the lessons reinforce the interconnectedness of the natural world.

--Stephen Sharpe is editor of Texas Architect.

Floor Plan

RESOURCES
concrete materials: Transit Mix; limestone: San Jacinto Materials; wall insulation: International Cellulose Corporation; metal roofing: MBCI; metal doors and frames: Pearland Industries; folding glass wall system: Nana Wall Systems; aluminum windows: Columbia Commercial Building Products; glass: AFG Industries; terrazzo: Venice Art Terrazzo; solar energy systems: Texmate, BP Solar Photovoltaic Module, Watsun Solar Tracker, SMA America; rainwater collection: Rain Man Waterworks; self composting toilets: Clivus Multrum; lighting: Focal Point