Mithun Architects of Seattle designed the campus and its buildings in collaboration with Hawtin Jorgensen Architects of Jackson, with the following objectives in mind:
1. To provide the necessary program space to fulfill the potential of the Teacher Learning Center.
2. To provide necessary classroom space to allow Journeys School to ultimately accommodate 220 Pre-K through 12th grade students while serving as a learning laboratory for the Teacher Learning Center.
3. To provide much needed residential space for local, state and national school groups, while offering appropriate residential space for visiting teachers and families.
4. To provide adequate and appropriate outdoor learning space.
5. To use our tremendously rich and varied natural resource area as a land-learning lab while:
• protecting scenic resources
• conserving wildlife corridors and habitat
• enhancing wetlands and aquatic habitat
• utilizing diverse outdoor study areas to foster an appreciation for conservation ethics and practices
6. To utilize and demonstrate environmentally intelligent design and building solutions.
Environmentally Intelligent Design Features [back to top]
The site planning approach placed most of the buildings on the northern side of the valley. This area offered better solar access and moved buildings with high intensity uses farther from wildlife sensitive tree cover.
All two-story buildings and most of the single story buildings were built into the hill, thus minimizing their scale of these buildings.
Site and building designs were intended to be educational tools in and of themselves, exhibiting environmentally intelligent design in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
Site (click on image to view larger) [back to top]
 • Detailed scientific reports of existing wildlife and plant communities helped locate buildings in the least disruptive areas of a 224-acre site.
• Native plantings integrated with existing plant communities helped prevent invasive non-native species from taking root.
• Building footprints totaled less than 52,000 square feet on the 224-acre north site, and 99.5% of that area was not built upon. Additionally, 93% of open space was protected. Development impacted roughly 16.5 acres, less than 2% of the total 880-acre Jackson Campus site.
• Local wildlife movement remained un-impacted once the installation was complete.
• The Campus was located out of the Highway 22 sightline.
• Onsite topsoil was stockpiled for reuse during landscaping.
• Erosion and dust control, including planting of temporary annual ground cover, was monitored and mediated throughout construction.
• The total 880 acre-site was actively managed to monitor and control human impacts, including: seasonal closures to human access; and limits on student numbers with restricted access points.
• The primary land management goal was to improve wildlife habitat. e.g. 3.2 miles of decades-old fencing was removed and wetlands were rehabilitated.
• We employed a full-time land management staff.
Energy & Water (click on images to view larger) [back to top] |
From the highway at the base of Vogel's Hill, all you can see is a road disappearing into the contour of the land. But beyond that lies so much more: The new Jackson Campus of Teton Science Schools is complete and busy servicing the educational needs of school children, teachers-in-learning and students of nature young and old, while maintaining and enhancing conservation easements on all but two percent of 880 total acres.
Carefully integrated into the landscape, two residential lodges, five educational buildings, a dining hall, maintenance building and welcome center were designed from a green perspective, using environmentally friendly materials with low-level organic compounds and using minimal resources. Natural lighting and innovation in space design have resulted in a learning environment in which students thrive. And since Teton Science Schools depends upon wildlife to fulfill its teaching mission, the entire site was prepared to avoid impact on established wildlife migration paths.
