Sohl Center for Outdoor Learning

The Plymouth County Conservation Commission set out to create the Center for Outdoor Learning, an open classroom facility that would serve as a place to educate people about conservation practices in a hands-on fashion.  It was the wish of the commission to create a building that was low-maintenance and sustainable. The principal challenge from a design standpoint was not the site in Hillview Park near Hinton, Iowa, but the uniquely tight budget of one hundred dollars per square foot.  In order to meet the budget, we had to distill the more common types of construction for an interpretive classroom space down to the essentials.  We had to eliminate anything superfluous.  During that process, we realized that we had opportunities to utilize sustainable and functional practices - for example, by exposing the concrete floors inside to southern daylight, they are able to benefit from solar heat gain in the winter months. To further reduce costs we reused wood columns that survived a 140 year-old warehouse fire as part of the core structure. Eliminating all but the basics, we maintained a stylistically and aesthetically well ordered appearance by carefully contrasting concrete and glass with cedar and historic wood columns. In addition to the interior spaces, the facility incorporates outdoor spaces for the programs.

The overhang of the roof structure combined with the satin etched glazing provides shade from the sun in the warm months, while allowing the southern sun to passively heat the space in the cold months when the sun is lower in the sky. The prairie test plot / learning garden serves as an outdoor classroom to learn about and experiment with outdoor conservation practices.