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Schaar’s Bluff Gathering Center in Dakota County

Regional park building demonstrates sustainability

It’s a rare occasion when a building – especially a small one – inspires awe. But that is exactly the effect of Schaar’s Bluff Gathering Center in Dakota County’s Spring Lake Park Reserve on the Mississippi River.

From the parking lot the 3,500-square-foot building doesn’t look particularly remarkable, though a very irregular roof line with vertical wooden siding arouses interest. What catches the eye at the parking lot is a concrete circle with four metal sentinels representing the cardinal directions. A long, curving sidewalk leads from the circle towards the Gathering Center.

The Center sits atop a 150-foot-high bluff above the river. At the entrance to the building, the visitor encounters a large map in the concrete plaza that depicts the major tributary rivers and creeks to the Mississippi. A narrow entrance is framed on one side by a straight concrete wall and on the other by a slanted, curved wooden wall that juts into the plaza. On the other side of the second wall is a sort of alcove with a long curved wooden bench.

Inside, the building is dominated by a large circular room with gorgeous views of the river and abundant natural light. From inside and out, the effect of the building is at once arresting and restful.

Honoring history, building for the future

“People have lived on this land for over 8,000 years,” said architect Thomas Meyer, of the Minneapolis firm Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, who designed the building in collaboration with Close Landscape Design and The 106 Group (Interpretive Design). “We built something that honors the site’s history while responding to and sustaining the surrounding environment for the future.”

The building has a variety of sustainable design elements. A few of them are:

• Nearly all of the building’s annual electricity needs are powered by a nearby wind turbine. Excess power will be sent to the electrical grid.
• The building is designed to control heat gains/losses by using super insulation techniques, automated and fixed shading devices, and sensor-controlled light and heat.
• Rainwater captured on the roof is used to flush toilets and is then treated in an on-site septic system before recharging the aquifer.
• A trellis running alongside the building will sustain wildlife and provide shade on the building during the warm months once fruit-bearing vines reach maturity.
• Construction materials consist of locally harvested woods from certified sustainable forests.

 

Park buildings can demonstrate possibilities

Bruce Blair is manager of facility and natural resource development for Dakota County Parks. A landscape architect by training, Blair is a champion of sustainable practices and design, and has had good support from the county board. “For years the county’s internal building code has far exceeded the mandated state code,” Blair said.

“Parks are a great place to do a little bit of risk-taking,” Blair explained, because the buildings are relatively small in scale and have excellent demonstration value. When the parks department had an opportunity to build a new visitors center at Spring Lake, the county board told Blair that as long as the department kept within its budget for the building, they could “push the envelope” on the design.

Capturing the extraordinary history of the site into the building design was a key goal, as well as being as environmentally sustainable as possible. The design team met at the site for a workshop with four representatives of Native American communities and two world-renowned ecological landscape designers from Australia who were traveling in the U.S.

The end result is a building that, according to a press release from the architects, mimics an irregular circle around a campfire ring. The simple forms of the structure allude to indigenous structures and the importance of compass points.

“We also planted a lot of edibles in ecological association on the site,” Blair said, “to help people understand the concept of the edible forest.”

Gathering Center is available for rental

The building has been open for nearly a year, and it is already having an impact. “The phone rings steadily from people inquiring about the wind turbine,” Blair said.

The main lobby of the building is open year-round, and the large room is available for group rentals, with a capacity of 75 people. It includes complete kitchen facilities, audio-visual equipment and flexible room set-up. See more information about the Gathering Center.