The rolling topography and exposed surface rock define the ground plane in the Ozarks. The mix of native grasses and hard surface place this region's watershed as one of the most sensitive given its delicate balance of porosity and natural polishing elements.

Proposed as an education destination for both youth and adult visitors, the 100 acre Valley Water Mill site includes a main learning and discovery facility and a series of small interactive learning stations strategically placed throughout the site.

The project's driving architectural idea of a “revealing landscape” meant that the mechanics of how the landscape and the building dealt with water should be evident and expressed in each design decision; embracing concepts and strategies that could be replicated by others. The intention is that every system remains conceptually transparent and pedagogical and expresses its individual relationship to the overall system. Every idea and concept incorporated would remain scalable; applicable at both the macro and micro scales. This concept would not exclusively refer to the landscape as it relates to the earth, but also the complex collection of building components and systems that as a network form their own “landscape”.

The Watershed Center is seen as a building with three distinct elements – the peeled up earth plane (green roof), the occupied bar of “found” or “discarded” rubble that makes up the storage, labs and library, and the “hard” devices that shed and divert water intentionally for collection and reuse. The “hard” devices are seen as the floating roof over the south facing office affectionately called the Duck Tail, which divert water west to be collected in a series of cisterns directly outside a Volunteer Room and visibly adjacent to both a Multi-Purpose room and Greenhouse that houses an Eco Machine. The approach illustrates how industrial or commercial construction can make use of water collection. The second “hard” device is the large heavy mass of the Multi-Purpose room diverting the water collected from its roof to a series of small-scale rain barrels on the south side of the each of the three bays of the room. The roof area of the multi purpose roof is intentionally sized to approximate the roof area of a residential home and to estimate the amount of runoff generated by residential development. The water collected is used as part of community classes about gardening with harvested water.

Materially, the project was heavily influenced by the tactile and colorful nature of the surrounding landscape, evident when walking the trails. These influences include lichen, glades, water (both seen in the reservoir and unseen in the aquifer) and the rocky topography of chert and limestone that is found throughout the region and evident on this particular site.

The building itself is sited with a east-west axis to reduce east and west exposure to conserve energy use in the building as well as its natural alignment with the Road 102 axis and the role it plays in bringing people to the site. The reduction of these exposures plays a key role in reducing the building’s dependency of mechanical systems and allows increased potential for south and north natural light to be utilized, thus reducing reliance in the building on artificial lighting.

• Project Designer: Shawn Gehle
• Project Manager: Laura Lesniewski, AIA
• Principal: Bob Berkebile, FAIA

• Audrey Voorhies
• Katrina Gerber, BGR Engineering
• Johnathan Todd, John Todd Ecological Design
• David Mar, Tipping + Mar Structural Engineers
• Gerould Wilhelm, Ph.D., Conservation Design Forum
• Matt Tucker, Conservation Design Forum

Project team while at BNIM