At last the wait is over. On August 7, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge flung open its doors to the public after a year of renovation with a grand reopening celebration of its Visitor Center in Bloomington, Minn. The meticulously planned and heavily anticipated event was a virtual who’s who of Minnesota, notably with Senator Amy Klobuchar and Congresswoman Betty McCollum on hand with Midwest Regional Director Tom Melius for the celebrations.
After a hiatus of more than 15 months, the visitor center for America’s largest urban national wildlife refuge (built in 1989) re-emerged with style—green style. While the efficiency project was retrofitted to a 21-year old building, it is without a doubt, sustainable architecture at its best, the new center features solar panels, a geothermal heating and cooling system, and halogens energy.
The 24 solar panels that top the penthouse of the center are not photovoltaic but are instead used to produce domestic water and to supplement heating. The panels produce 268.8 million BTUs per year. The hot water that is produced from this power heats the building. There are 60 geothermal wells that provide all of the air conditioning needs and provide heat when needed. An ice tank that is linked to the geothermal system and provides additional cooling needs on very hot days. "We put in an ice storage system which is composed of CALMAC," says Marie Niesen, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Regional Office lead engineer on the project. "It’s a one of a kind design for the region." Niesen who also worked on an Agassiz NWR project to repair the solar panel to heat the maintenance building there, estimates that the installation the state-of-the-art design at Minnesota Valley NWR will reduce the facility’s energy usage and subsequent costs by approximately 40%. Niesen worked on the Morris Wetland Management District renovation, as well.
The visitor center now also features high efficiency lighting system, an air curtain on the back door that reduces energy loss when door is opened and three energy recovery units that transfer energy from exhaust to fresh air when entering building. "We also put energy efficient lighting throughout the building. And in so doing, we enhanced the building’s appearance," Niesan notes.
The design was done by MEP Associates out of Eau Claire, Wis. The Construction was awarded to LS Black of St. Paul, Minn., says Niesen. She along with Tom Kerr (St. Croix WMD) and Roy Wassather (retired), worked on the requirements and reviewed the designs submittals as they were developed. "They could have just put in a conventional boiler system, but being the regional energy manager, I’m familiar with the energy requirements that need to be met in new buildings and major redesigns of existing buildings," Niesen says. She had to ensure that those requirements were being met by MEP’s design, she says. The sustainable renovation highlights has attracted the attention of the Minnesota Renewable Energy Society, a non-profit that promotes the use of renewable energies in Minnesota through education and demonstration of practical applications. MRES would like to put the refuge on its annual October solar tour (http://mnrenewables.org/solar-tour). Doug Shoemaker, Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the organization, indicates that the typical sightseers on the tour are people who are looking for what they can do for their own homes. They subsequently become part of the tour themselves.
In addition to the energy reductions, the lobby was gutted and reemerged with a new theme. The new green style answers one simple question that may be on the minds of visitors who stopover the new center: "Who needs a refuge?"
Renovation highlights in supporting the new theme include a butterfly garden at the entrance, a lobby information kiosk displaying public usage to the tune of 250,000-275,000, a new exhibit area that features an eye spy turtle, a snake den, press to hear wood peckers, and a tiger salamander among other critters. As with the event itself, attention was paid to design detail, as even the leaves in the exhibit area have insect damage to enhance authenticity.
--Valerie Rose Redmond
External Affairs
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