The Dunwoody City Council unanimously approved at its Nov. 13 meeting a contract not to exceed $665,000 for the construction of a pavilion at the Dunwoody Nature Center.
The city will pay for only $400,000 of the contract while the nonprofit Nature Center will cover the remaining costs.
The city in April approved $200,000 for the Nature Center through its Facilities Improvement Partnership Program for the pavilion.
An additional $200,000 was approved in October after DNC Executive Director Alan Mothner told the council the estimate for the pavilion far exceeded the original 2016 estimate of $300,000.
The Nature Center operates in the city-owned park as part of a public-private partnership with the city.
Mothner has said the pavilion is needed to allow for more programming, including Boy Scout and Girl Scout troop meetings and school field trips. Opportunities for renting the facility out for corporate events also would be available.
Mothner has said the Nature Center’s space now is so limited that when there is inclement weather, there is nowhere to put visitors. The pavilion, which will be enclosed in glass and built on the hill overlooking the center’s meadow, will provide that much needed space.
Preliminary plans were to have the pavilion open by next spring.
The Nature Center is also undertaking a $2.6 million capital campaign.
First, congratulations to the Dunwoody Nature Center!!! Secondly, upon which hill will the Northern Pavillion be located?? If the Northern Pavillion will actually be built on the hill to the north, it will be right ion the middle of the best American Holly forest that I’v ever seen. Will it be a part of the DNC itself, or separate from it?? In either case, under Alan Mothner’s leadership it’s sure to be a real asset to the campus!!
Further overcommercialization of DNC. It was supposed to be a small oasis of respite via a donation from past home/land owner and then we were forced to hear the cling of alum bats when the ballfield was installed. Now we will have to endure a large commercial building and parking lot with 1,000 people in the form of an ES to be built. And a new, oversized pavilion. It’s just a small patch of an area that has done well and we are trying to make into Chattahoochee Nature Center and ruining it. Why not just sell it to developers, put in homes, and have the city pay for a small park in the middle that we call a public park – but is really a park for the homeowners (as was done at PVC park development (as if we are really going to use that PVC park when we can just go around the corner to Brook Run park))?
I prepared the Master Plan that located the pavilion and established the proposed character of the future improvements. The building is elevated and nestled into the trees to hang off the slope. The intent is to not destroy the trees nor their root systems to construct the building. The design, as well and the construction methods to be used, are intended to be site sensitive and low impact. The building is not located in the Holly Groves, but in a pine and hardwood area overlooking the creek and main event area.
A true nature center should blend with the natural landscape and not be forced upon the site by altering the land. One of the main goals of the new facilities is to demonstrate how to build with the natural conditions without destroying the land. A demonstration in good practices. The parking will be laid out similar to the parking lots you can experience at Callaway Gardens at the Discovery Center and Southern Pines Conference Center. Cars between the trees, not clear cut and covered with asphalt. The objective is to blend the built environment with the natural conditions by respecting both. The presence of such a facility will be and example of low impact development and be beneficial to adjacent property values. Mack R. Cain RLA LEED AP