A nearly 40-year-old campus that houses youths in environmental education programs at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park will be replaced with new buildings designed to meet green building certification.
The new development will allow for overnight stays for up to 140 students at a time, which is more than double the capacity of the current facility. The park hopes to complete the new campus in 2022, Yellowstone’s 150th anniversary.
“The youth campus will be funded through a combination of philanthropic donations received by our nonprofit partner, Yellowstone Forever, and federal support,” Superintendent Dan Wenk said in a release. “The campus we build together will teach sustainability. It will facilitate high-quality learning experiences and inspire students to be lifelong learners and stewards of Yellowstone long into the National Park Service’s second century.”
The new campus buildings will be designed and constructed to meet the Living Building Challenge, a green building certification program and sustainable design framework that requires performance standards demonstrated over 12 consecutive months. For example, 105 percent of the campus’s energy needs must be supplied by on-site renewable energy on a net annual basis, without the use of on-site combustion.
A portion of the campus will be built on a previously disturbed site.
The current campus was constructed in 1978. Functionally out of date, the dormitory, classroom, and office space do not meet the needs of today’s students and staff. Its accessibility, energy efficiency, and parking are also deficient.
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