Commission Approves 4 New Educational Centers

PHILADELPHIA, PA

The Fairmount Park Commission recently approved four new environmental education centers, which will accentuate the overall environmental initiatives of each park. The education centers--averaging 3,000 square feet per area--will include the Fairmount (East and West Parks), the Wissahickon, Tacony Creek watersheds, FDR Park in the Delaware estuary. Designed and built under the Park's NLREEP initiative, the centers will border a range of natural features that will offer a variety of educational experiences.

Each center will include a resource library, computer area, displays of the Park's ecosystems, an area for exhibits, and space to conduct scientific experiments. The designers intend to use a great extent of landscape planting materials and energy-saving building systems.

After a thorough site assessment--conducted by Atkin, Olsin, Lawson-Bell Architects--for the centers, 23 sites were selected through suggestions by Park staff, Friends groups, and neighborhood organizations. Additional members of the consulting team included Lager Raabe Landscape Architects, Inc.; E&M Engineering, consulting engineers; Cairone & Kaupp, Inc., civil engineers; and Michael Weilbacher of the Lower Merion Conservancy as education consultant.

Currently, no Landscape Architect has been hired for the project. The Commission is reviewing the proposals of five landscape architectural teams, which includes Lager Raabe Landscape Architects, Inc. The design process of the Fairmount Park Commission's Natural Lands Restoration and Environmental Education Program will begin in mid-October 1998. The park will be completed by July 1999. For additional information, contact Nancy A. Goldenberg at 215-685-0274.