A 21st Century Gathering Center Reflecting 8000 Years Along the Mississippi River

About the Program

Category: Parks and Recreation (Best in Category)

Year: 2009

Dakota County set out to develop a new park visitor facility that would combine innovative “green” sustainable principles with a unique interpretive connection to a site that reflects the area’s 8000-year history of human habitation. The Schaar’s Bluff Cultural Gathering Center is an ultra-efficient, near zero-energy building that provides both demonstrated cost savings in its operation, as well as a unique visitor experience. Designers, county staff, landscape architects, Native Americans, and ecologists worked collaboratively on the project, which consists of a 3500 square foot nature center with adjacent wind turbine located on a dramatic 100-foot high bluff above the Mississippi River in the Spring Lake Park Reserve. Along with restoring the site ecology that had been disturbed through agricultural use, it is now connected with cultural influences and historical significance to create an inviting public facility. For thousands of years, native people gathered on the bluff over the river, often sitting around a campfire to stay warm or cook. Consequently, the building alludes to indigenous values, hugging the bluff with its round shape mimicking a campfire. Its use of 21st century technology allows it to exist lightly on the land, almost as the first residents to the site did centuries ago.