Toyota, the third-large automaker by unit sales in the U.S., has made a $1 million donation to Yellowstone National Park’s Yellowstone Park Foundation, which will be used to support the development of a more energy efficient Youth Campus.
The Yellowstone Youth Campus, designed by Portland, Ore.-based Hennebery Eddy Architects, will be a home for immersive, youth-oriented programming within the park. The on-campus buildings also aspire to be the first in a national park to achieve Living Building Challenge certification, whose design and construction standards integrate ecology, cultural heritage, stewardship, sustainability, and leadership.
Details about the upgrading of the Youth Campus—such as its total cost, and when construction is expected to start and finish—have yet to be made public. The architect and Toyota deferred questions to the park’s public affairs office, which was unable to provide BD+C with more information about the plans.
Toyota released the news about its donation to align with the centennial anniversary of the National Park Service this year. President Ulysses S. Grant signed a bill into law on March 1, 1872 that established Yellowstone National Park as the world’s first national park.
What’s known is this: once the design is finalized, the campus’s Youth Conservation Corps, which consists of two buildings, will be razed. New buildings will be far more energy efficient, thanks to high-performance insulation and windows, natural ventilation, and other passive measures. Only nontoxic and low VOC building materials and furnishings will be used.
Solar will provide more than 100% of the campus’s energy needs. All of the water used by the campus will be locally sourced, and wastewater will be treated onsite for reuse.
Once completed, the buildings will serve as the home for two youth programs: Expedition Yellowstone, which brings in grade-school aged kids from disadvantaged neighborhoods for a weeklong residential experience; and Youth Conservation Corps, a month-long immersive summer program for high schoolers. The new facilities— which will include four classrooms, residential buildings, and staff housing—will serve twice the campus’s current student capacity. (The Yellowstone public affairs office could not provide its current student count.)
The Youth Campus will include classrooms and residences, and have room to double its current student enrollment. Image: Hennebery Eddy Architects
“The new Yellowstone Youth Campus is an opportunity to support the conservation principles of the National Park Service, while reinforcing Toyota’s commitment to the environment,” said Toyota Motor North America Environmental General Manager Kevin Butt. “We hope this environmental learning center will inspire and empower future leaders in building a more culturally aware, ecologically responsible and regenerative future.”
Toyota has donated to Yellowstone before, most notably $1 million to the Foundation to help build the new Old Faithful Visitor Education Center, which opened in 2010. The carmaker last year collaborated with the Lamar Buffalo Ranch, which is located in Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley, by donating a set of Camry hybrid car batteries that were integrated into the ranch’s new renewable energy array.
One of the purposes of the Youth Campus is to give young Americans a better appreciation of nature and conservation. Image: Hennebery Eddy Architects.
Related Stories
| Apr 26, 2013
Documentary shows 'starchitects' competing for museum project
"The Competition," a new documentary produced by Angel Borrego Cuberto of Madrid, focuses on the efforts of five 'starchitects' to capture the design contract for the new National Museum of Art of Andorra: a small country in the Pyrenees between Spain and France.
| Apr 24, 2013
Los Angeles may add cool roofs to its building code
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wants cool roofs added to the city’s building code. He is also asking the Department of Water and Power (LADWP) to create incentives that make it financially attractive for homeowners to install cool roofs.
| Apr 23, 2013
Architects to MoMA: Don't destroy Williams/Tsien project
Richard Meier, Thom Mayne, Steven Holl, Hugh Hardy and Robert A.M. Stern are among the prominent architects who on Monday called for the Museum of Modern Art to reconsider its decision to demolish the former home of the American Folk Art Museum.
| Apr 19, 2013
Must see: Shell of gutted church on stilts, 40 feet off the ground
Construction crews are going to extremes to save the ornate brick façade of the Provo (Utah) Tabernacle temple, which was ravaged by a fire in December 2010.
| Apr 17, 2013
First look: Renzo Piano's glass-domed motion pictures museum
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences last week released preliminary plans for its $300 million Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences museum in Los Angeles, designed by Renzo Piano and local architect Zoltan Pali.
| Apr 16, 2013
5 projects that profited from insulated metal panels
From an orchid-shaped visitor center to California’s largest public works project, each of these projects benefited from IMP technology.
| Apr 12, 2013
Nation's first 'food forest' planned in Seattle
Seattle's Beacon Food Forest project is transforming a seven-acre lot in the city’s Beacon Hill neighborhood into a self-sustaining, edible public park.
| Apr 12, 2013
Chicago rail conversion puts local twist on High Line strategy
Plans are moving forward to convert an unused, century-old Chicago rail artery to a 2.7 mile, 13 acre recreational facility and transit corridor.
| Apr 11, 2013
George W. Bush Presidential Center achieves LEED Platinum certification
The George W. Bush Presidential Center announced today it has earned Platinum certification by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program. The Bush Center is the first presidential library to achieve LEED Platinum certification under New Construction.
