Center looks to greener pastures

After 35 years in trailers at its 16th Street nature haven, the Environmental Nature Center plans to move into a permanent building.

Appropriately, it will use recycled materials, will be ventilated naturally with no air conditioning, and will incorporate solar panels to produce the building’s power.

The Newport Beach planning commission will consider the plans next week, and if all goes well, the center will break ground for the new building in July, said Environmental Nature Center Executive Director Bo Glover.

Although the center’s educational programs focus on the outdoors, its leaders have wanted a permanent building for years. The project moved up the to-do list last spring when they received a $4.5-million gift from the Harry and Grace Steele Foundation, Glover said.

When the center first opened, its office space was a trailer. About six or seven years ago, other trailers were added on a new piece of land bought from the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

That’s the base of operations for managing a maze of walking trails that wind through 15 plant and animal habitats on the center’s 3.5 acres. Glover said the new building will include a museum space, a library, a nature store and two classrooms, so the center can expand its programs. They now serve about 16,000 students annually as well as thousands of other visitors.

The building’s total budget hasn’t been determined, but the center is in the midst of raising $9 million, some of which will go to its endowments, Glover said. The environmentally friendly features of the building should qualify it for the highest level of certification by the U.S. Green Building Council, and, Glover hopes, make it a showpiece and example to the community.

“There was a time when having ‘environmental’ in your name was not such a good thing,� he said. “It’s a pretty good thing to have in your name now.�

For information on Environmental Nature Center programs or the fundraising campaign call (949) 645-8489 or go to www.encenter.org.