Title: Thunder Bay River Center
Location of Proejct: Alpena, MI
Project Completion Date: N/A
Firm Name: BruceJohnson-ARCHITECTURE, PA

Short Description: The Thunder Bay River Center will be the focus of the 500 acre Alpena Wildlife Sanctuary, located in Alpena, Northeast Michigan's largest city. “Alpena’s Everglades” serves the 72,000 residents of the 5 county Thunder Bay River Watershed with wetlands, waterways, and the 17 acre Island Park next to the building site. The facility will provide the coordination and infrastructure required for Northeast Michigan to become a center for environmental research and stewardship, and a destination for eco-tourism and ecologically sustainable outdoor recreation.

Architect's Statement: THE PROGRAM, developed on site with the building committee, resulted in a 20,000sf facility that would become a destination for adults and school groups to experience the environment of the Thunder Bay River Watershed. The building itself will be an exhibit for learning about environmental stewardship, sustainability, and alternative energy through lectures, seminars, hands-on exhibits, and guided excursions that engage all the senses of touch, taste, sight, and smell. The center will include interactive exhibit spaces with 6 large aquariums and a display wall, a reception area, retail store, indoor and outdoor classroom space, animal rescue room, administrative offices, catering kitchen, mechanical and storage. It will use local materials and reflect the marine history of the region with logging, lighthouses, and fossils. Finally, there are concerns about the visual impact of the building on the site as viewed from the street. THE SOLUTION began with the decision to combine basic passive solar design principles with the need to reduce the visability of a 20,000 square-foot one-story building. Using the site slope, the building is buried on the north, opening the south to sun and river views. Green roofs enhance the visual screening. Solar gain and direct sun on exhibits is controlled with exterior motorized awnings and insulated Kalwall glazing. A serpentine concrete masonry wall is used to define the spaces, for permanent and temporary displays, passive thermal storage, and location for a living wall on the upper portion. Students will create custom blocks at the local concrete masonry college to be incorporated into both sides of the wall. Other sustainable building elements include an exposed concrete floor for passive thermal storage, a lighthouse for daylight, thermal chimney, and to act as a historical beacon. Natural ventilation pulls air in across the moist river grass and warm air is exhausted through high north clerestories. The entry wing of the center was angled to avoid large specimen trees and to reference the island bridge. A “living exhibit” with local flora and fauna and stream is a miniature example of the watershed and another teachable method for capturing and storing the sun.
THE CONSTRUCTION is a mix of materials based on location: public exhibit areas are heavy timber laminated wood frame, exposed concrete block display walls, aluminum storefront glazing and Kalwall with aerogel. Office and support areas are bar joists on steel frame with steel stud walls. All below grade walls are poured concrete with exterior insulation. Green/living roofs over tapered insulation are used throughout except the active solar collection area. All floors are etched and stained concrete with animal prints cast into floor defining the entry path. A radiant heating system is supplied by natural gas boilers plumbed in series and supplemented by active solar. Forced air cooling is supplied by an open loop geothermal system that discharges back to the river. A simple computer readout will be part of the display wall. The entry pavilion is a local hand hewn timber frame to match the existing Island Bridge.