This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.
This Website Uses Cookies
By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Learn More
This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.
search
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
  • Midwest
  • News
    • Newswire
  • Features
    • Projects
    • Companies
  • Top Lists
  • Current Issue
  • Blogs
  • Submit Your Photos
    • People
    • Projects
    • Events
  • Resources
    • Proposal & Bids
    • Industry Jobs
    • Subscribe
    • eNewsletter
    • Events
    • Advertise
    • Reprints and Plaques
    • Staff Directory
    • Construction Cities
  • ENR Home
  • Other Regions
    • ENR Home
    • California
    • MidAtlantic
    • Midwest
    • Mountain States
    • New York
    • New England
    • Northwest
    • Southeast
    • Southwest
    • Texas & Louisiana
Home » Hidden Oaks Nature Center
MidwestMidwest Construction Projects

Hidden Oaks Nature Center

December 1, 2009
Reprints
No Comments

The heavily wooded site for a new $6- million nature center for the Bolingbrook (Ill.) Park District influenced the building’s design to be similar to a tree house. The design places the nature center between two large oaks with decks around both trees, creating a treehouse feeling.

Hidden Oaks Nature Center
Photo: PAUL SCHLISMANN PHOTOGRAPHY

The project is pursuing LEED Platinum certification and has currently achieved LEED Gold through the initial design submittal.

Project highlights include: two early-education classrooms, two multi-use rooms, staff offices and interpretive displays; a green roof; constructed wetlands for black water cleansing; using permeable pavement for all new vehicular surfaces; and multi-use trails and council ring.

Key Players

Owner: Bolingbrook Park District, Bolingbrook, Ill.
Construction Manager: Wight Construction, Darien, Ill.
Design Firm: Wight & Co., Darien, Ill.

Sustainability challenges included diverting more than 90% of construction waste from landfills, minimizing site disturbance (including pumping concrete to avoid soil compaction in sensitive tree root zones), coordinating with the owner to remove invasive plant species, and locating eight 500-ft-deep geothermal wells under a permeable paver roadway.

In order to use as much local material as possible, timbers for the main structure of the single-story portion of the building were harvested right on the site.

Photovoltaic panels integrated into the building’s design provide about 14% of the power the building uses. The entrance signs are also solar-powered.

All rain water is infiltrated back into the ground, helping to replenish local aquifers and restore the endangered oak/hickory ecosystem. Liquid effluent from the center’s restrooms is treated by passing it through rock and plants in a self-contained cell or wetland. No other project in Will County has ever controlled both black water and storm water on the same site in this fashion.

ENR Subscribe

Related Articles

Best Project Small Project (Under $10 Million): Knoch Knolls Nature Center

The Nature Conservancy Headquarters, Indianapolis

Post a comment to this article

Report Abusive Comment


Top Lists

Top Design Firms See a Decline in RevenuesTop Design Firms
Midwest Top Design Firms Still Growing Strong


Top Midwest Contractors: No Recovery In SightTop Contractors
Top Contractors Invest in Expanding Markets, Merge to Grow


Midwest Builders Face Worsening EconomyTop Specialty Contractors
Specialty Contracting Companies See Steady Flow of Business



Industry Jobs

Videos

ENR Proposals and Bids


ENR twitterfeed
Tweets by ENR_MW

ENR

ENR Digital Edition Cover

Dec 9, 2019

A joint venture of Skanska, Corman Kokosing Construction Co. and McLean Contracting Co. is moving toward an early 2020 construction start for a $463-million replacement for a 79-year-old bridge across the Potomac River, south of Washington, D.C.

View More Create Account
  • Resources
    • advertise
    • contact us
    • about us
    • photo submissions
    • customer service
    • digital edition
    • Survey And Sample
  • Subscription Center
    • Subscribe
    • Website Registration
    • Privacy Policy
    • eNewsletters
    • FAQ
  • Multimedia
    • Videos
    • Slideshows
    • Photo Contest

Copyright ©2019. All Rights Reserved BNP Media.

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing