building Earthpark
Earthpark aligns with Iowa’s anchor values of education and protecting the environment and has had scientists, ecologists, educators, and engineers from seven nations involved in our planning. This world-class environmental learning center is ideally situated in the heart of our nation within a day’s drive of 40 million Americans.
Iowa has the opportunity for visitors to experience the integration of plants, animals and marine life in a powerful new way that goes far beyond what zoos and aquariums are offering today. Utilizing a large-scale green building and world class environmental learning center where breakthrough technology mimics natural systems, Earthpark will link sustainable design principles with the latest developments in alternative and renewable energy, water conservation and recycling.
Earthpark will have ‘back-of-the-house’ tours so visitors can see all of this in action plus galleries devoted to Iowa’s native prairies, geology and agriculture and a learning center with classrooms and lab facilities.
The activities at Earthpark won’t stop with the ecological core and galleries, it will be loaded with arts and culture attributes – there will truly be something for everyone at Earthpark.
Earthpark will be an amazing facility that includes:
- Three distinct Amazonian tropical rain forest ecosystems, housed within a high-performance, energy-efficient biome
- Integrated, multi-level freshwater aquarium illustrating the flow of water from the soaring Andes to the rich Atlantic
- State-of-the-art science-based learning center for Pre-K through 12th grade students and their teachers
- Most advanced “virtual reality” multimedia experience available
- Outdoor exhibits that provide an opportunity to reconnect visitors with Iowa’s rivers, wetlands, and native tall grass prairie
The architectural team is led by Grimshaw Architects, an international firm with offices in London, New York and Melbourne. Grimshaw is recognized for their visionary, iconic architecture and sustainable design which is clearly visible in a comparable project and one of the most well known indoor rain forest exhibits in the world - Eden Project in Cornwall, England. Five hours from London the Eden Project has been called the “eighth wonder of the world” by the Washington Post and in England’s most rural county has far exceeded attendance expectations.
The Grimshaw team will undertake the work from both their New York office and the one they plan to open in the Earthpark host community. Grimshaw will collaborate with Des Moines-based architects RDG Planning & Design and partner with other structural, engineering and materials experts, specialized exhibit designers and horticulturists. Weitz, one of the largest construction companies in the U.S. and founded in 1855 in Des Moines, Iowa. will lead the construction team.
Building and program design is currently underway.
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