Image 1: The San Elijo Lagoon is already a popular place for evening dog walks and bird watching. The new nature center will blend in with its surroundings.
The building designed by Zagrodnik + Thomas Architects is 4230 square feet, cost $4.7 million to build, and is on track to be LEED Gold Certified. Its footprint is the same as the original nature center, which didn’t have much function except to facilitate some group activities. The building also has photovaultaic panels, which supply the building with 52% of its energy requirements. Other green building elements include: radiant floor heating, green planted roof, recycled cotton insulation, certified renewable lumber, natural daylighting and ventilation, storm water filtering, native vegetation and recycled water used for both irrigation and to supply the toilets.
As a Cardiff resident and weekly frequenter of the San Elijo Lagoon, this is a welcome addition to this small community. A new superstar-building like this will hopefully bring more people to the nature center and lagoon to learn about these fragile wetland environments and green building techniques. It has already received numerous press articles and a nomination for an orchid award this year.
Image 2: The nature center facing west, still under construction. Existing native California vegetation in front of the building.
Image 3: Nature center's viewing deck with photovoltaic pergola.
Image 4: while the construction footprint is small, heavy machinery is still being used for construction.
Image 5: Architect's renderings of the finished building.
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