[ predock ] Trinity River Audubon Center

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 cafe. 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.