The Audubon Center at Debs Park near Los Angeles debuted November 7 as the Audubon Society’s first nature center in California constructed from the ground up using environmentally sensitive design techniques. Design for the new building fits within the guidelines of the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System™. A team of Green Building Council affiliates worked hand-in-glove with the owner to give life to the new center. Campbell and Campbell of Santa Monica created the master plan and the landscape architecture designs for the 200-acre park. The deft touch of the venerable Esherick Homsey Dodge & Davis Architects of San Francisco graces the building design. Soltierra coordinated the LEED™ documentation and submission, TG Construction served as general contractor, and BOVIS Lend-Lease acted as the owner’s representative. All told, more than 20 other firms also provided design and construction services.

Going for the Platinum
Audubon is seeking a platinum rating from the council—the highest rating available—for the Debs Park facility. To meet the stringent requirements, the building must earn a minimum of 52 “sustainability points”—awarded for everything from site selection to indoor environmental quality—out of an available 69. Audubon is seeking to earn 55 points. The Audubon Center at Debs Park is just one of three buildings in Southern California currently seeking the Platinum rating and, if awarded, will be the first facility in the country to have received this distinction under the new 2.1 version of LEED™ in the New Construction class.

The design of the Audubon Center at Debs Park focuses on key environmental issues at the very heart of sustainable building: alternative energy sources, including solar power; water conservation; recycled building materials; and native landscaping. The 5,023 square-foot building will be Los Angeles’ first entirely powered by on-site solar systems—functioning off the grid. It also will use 70 percent less water than a conventional building of its size. More than 50 percent of the building materials will be locally manufactured—2.5 times that required to achieve a LEED™ credit. And more than 90 percent of construction debris generated will be recycled. “Because we are entirely solar-powered, we’ll save $5,000 per year on electricity alone, says Elsa Lopez, director of the Audubon Center at Debs Park.

All elements of the project, from the renewable sisal carpets on the floors to the top of the pergolas, add up to a super-efficient building. The ground-face concrete block walls, exposed on the interior and stuccoed on the outside, are cemented with grout containing 25–50 percent flyash, a recycled waste product of coal burning. Their steel rebar reinforcement boasts 100 percent recycled material, including melted down guns traded in to the City of Los Angeles. The dark, earth-toned exterior blends in with the hillside and complements the solar arrays, which include 200 photovoltaic panels hooked to batteries that can store three days’ worth of power. The building’s plywood and redwood for its pergolas all comes from sustainably managed forests, as certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

Urban oasis
Debs Regional Park, a 282-acre urban wilderness just 10 minutes’ drive northeast of downtown LA, shelters wildlife from coyotes to 138 species of birds, according to the Audubon Society. Yet some of the city’s densest urban neighborhoods surround it. Within a two-mile radius, 50,000 young people, predominantly Latino, will have the opportunity to enjoy the site’s natural beauty. The landscape plan, which encompasses restored native plants, an interpretive trails system, and interior courtyards, embodies the concept of “nature in the city” to teach how people and nature can exist side-by-side.

The Audubon Center at Debs Park joins the growing network of green Audubon Centers across the country. In 1990, the National Audubon Society began its commitment to green building practices by restoring and refurbishing New York City’s historic Schermerhorn Building to serve as the organization’s headquarters. The Audubon House, designed by the Croxton Collaborative, still commands the building industry’s respect as a prime example of urban sustainable design.

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