Parks
Environmental Center
Watch Us Grow
The current Administration Building houses Parks Department staff as well as the Division of Special Events. The addition will house Camden County’s Environmental Educator and Rutgers Cooperative Extension and associated park staff of 8 as well as Master Gardener volunteers. The addition will offer a large foyer/reception area, 3 offices for staff, a laboratory and work room for the Master Gardener volunteers, restrooms and shower space, a large program room and an outdoor classroom area.
What makes this project exciting is that it’s Camden County’s first complete and big jump into Green Design.
The addition will be Silver LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Certified. LEED is a certification program and the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED promotes sustainability in five key areas: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.
Many improvements will be made to the existing building and will support the Green Design criteria, though the LEED certification will be for the addition only.
Green Features:
Skylights in the garage and skylight sun tunnels in 3 windowless offices will provide natural light for mechanics and staff.
90% of rooms will have views to the outside to accommodate natural daylighting.
10% of materials will be of recycled content.
10% of materials will come from this region, from within 500 miles.
Waste management and recycling will be required during construction. (Contractor is obligated to separate materials.) And, as in all county buildings, a recycling program will be maintained once we open.
Reduction of groundwater discharge from the addition through 4 different features:
- Green Roof on entire addition – sedum (a low maintenance plant) will be planted. It holds water reducing runoff and filters the water before it goes into the ground.
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Roof drains will pipe to a (3) new Rain Garden. And (4) A Rainwater Collection Tank (cistern) will be installed in our garage.
The Gray water to be used to flush toilets in old building. This last feature also reduces the amount of water we will use.
Use of wood certified by FSC – certifies that wood comes from a sustainable forest which manages resources to meet harvesting needs and maintain biodiversity.
Windows will have insulated glazing and Low E coating to improve insulation and reduce solar heat gain.
Low VOC paints will be used and no materials containing urea formaldehyde will be permitted.
A corrugated metal Solar Wall Panel will be installed along the bottom of the south wall. It will collect heat that will be served into the heating system, thereby reducing the heat that we’ll have to produce.
A solar hot water heater will be installed and will provide domestic water heated by the sun.
Outdoor classroom area will be pervious concrete as will all walkways, steps, and misc. paved areas.
A bike rack and shower will be installed to promote employees using pedal or foot power to get to work.
Additionally, the existing Parks Administration Parking Lot as well as the conference room and additional restrooms have helped keep the footprint for these new improvements as compact as possible.
And lastly, to help the public understand what we have done and the positive impact these green initiatives have made, Educational Signage will be placed around the building.