RIM Architects of Anchorage, Alaska, was awarded a contract by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to design a new marine education and research center planned for Homer. Design Craftsmen of Michigan and AldrichPears of Vancouver, B.C., were also awarded a contract to design the center=s exhibits. The 30,000+ square foot building will house a visitor center, an auditorium, an environmental education lab, research facilities and headquarters for both the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge and the Kachemak Bay Research Reserve. Design work will begin immediately and will be completed by next fall. The building is scheduled to open in March of 2004. It will be the largest U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service visitor center in Alaska, and the only one dedicated to the marine environment.
The Service=s Alaska Regional Director David B. Allen said, "This project will bring the remote refuge and its unique wildlife to the people. It is important to bring ongoing research directly into focus via education, so that the public learns as quickly as we do about issues affecting both the refuge and the ecosystem." Research Reserve Manager Glenn Seaman said, "We are excited about it, both for the research reserve and the community. The community has worked hard and been supportive of the facility for a long time. It is a good example of how the community and government can work together."
RIM previously designed the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage for which it received a Merit Award from the American Institute of Architects= Alaska Chapter. Rolland Reid II, lead designer for the Heritage Center, will also lead the design of the Homer facility. Other buildings previously designed by RIM in the area include the Homer Airport, Seward Recreation Center, Tustumena School addition, and the Grand Aleutian Hotel and Ounalashka Corporation headquarters in Unalaska. RIM has been in business in Anchorage for 14 years, previously under the name of Cash Barner Architects.
Design Craftsmen has created exhibits for a wide range of museums and visitor centers for over 30 years. Recent Alaska projects include the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center in Juneau and the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center in Ketchikan. AldrichPears, who will design the 5,000 square feet of exhibits, had worked with the refuge on exhibit design during concept planning in the early 1990s. Current Alaska projects include a communication plan for Denali National Park Visitor Complex with RIM and the Totem Exhibit Hall for the National Park Service in Sitka.
Other sub-consultants who will be working on the design include Land Design North of Anchorage, Ability Surveys of Homer, DOWL Engineers of Anchorage, MBA Consulting Engineers of Anchorage, Reid Middleton, HDR Alaska, Inc., Pan American Consulting Engineers of Anchorage, RIM Design, and HMS, Inc. of Anchorage.
More information can be found about these firms on their websites , and . Please indicate that you would like to subscribe to FWS-Alaska news and give your name in the body of the message.
