The new Twin Creek Science and educational faculty in the Roaring Fork area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Gatlinburg Tennessee will have an open house December 1st.
Last week Senator Lamar Alexander was a keynote speaker when the environmentally friendly 15,000 square foot facility was officially dedicated and now the public can tour the Twin Creeks Science and Education Center located on Cherokee Orchard Road from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm this Saturday.
Not only is the Twin Creeks Science and Education Center an attractive building featuring a beautiful architectural design that fits perfectly into the landscape of the Smoky Mountains National park, this building features energy and water saving features that should be incorporated into all new commercial and residential buildings.
Water conservation in the Twin Creeks Science and Education Center is accomplished through the use of low-flow plumbing fixtures, waterless urinals and recovering storm water runoff from the building into rock lined holding ponds.
Energy savings are accomplished through building alignment and large strategically placed windows which optimize natural daylight, high-efficiency automatic lighting and the use of both recycled and natural building materials.
It has been proven that incorporating such intelligence into building designs greatly improves the heath and well being as well as the efficiency and productivity of those working within such a facility.
Economically advanced environmentally friendly buildings generally only cost 5% more than their less efficient counterparts and the additional costs are usually recouped in less than 6 years.
The purpose of the Twin Creeks Science and Education Center is to allow the national parks resource mangers and even visiting guest scientists to have an effect place for their continuing studies into the biological inventory of the park under the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory program, a climate-control storage area for the approximately 50,000 plant and insect specimens, and work spaces in order to study the water and air quality for the national park.
The scientific data collected by the park and the subsequent research will be shared with teachers and students in a guest classroom within the Twin Creeks Science and Education Center allowing neighboring communities to share in the findings and to better understand the scientific process.
In a press release the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Dale Ditmanson stated "We are pleased to offer our neighbors a chance to see first hand this unique building and the distinctive elements that make this a showcase for the Park and surrounding communities" and he went on to say "Resource managers will be available to discuss the different office and work stations and our education staff will have hands-on activities highlighting the Parks as Classrooms program for children to participate. The public can also view a variety of exhibits that were prepared to outline the Park's different science initiatives and wildlife and vegetation management programs, as well as explore the chemical lab and natural history specimen collection. Part of the preserved collection includes the extinct passenger pigeon which will be on display,"
