Cylburn Arboretum Friends is not currently renting out the Nature Education Center Space
The NEC was created when CAF renovated the former Cylburn carriage house and added a new “barn” exhibit hall. It opened in 2023. The carriage house was built in the mid-1800s but the only original features are the stone walls. A fire in 1912 burned the entire structure which was quickly rebuilt by the Cottens to better accommodate modern cars. Today, the carriage house has classroom space, a kitchen and public bathrooms on the ground floor. The upper level is office space for Cylburn Arboretum Friends. The adjacent exhibit hall is a place for visitors to learn more about trees before going out to explore the property.
The exhibit hall houses some Baltimore Bird Club exhibits and dioramas, so we consciously planned the space thinking about our feathered friends. While the trend in modern architecture to maximize natural light – we wanted to do it in a way that doesn’t hurt our avian neighbors. Glass panes are an invisible threat to flying birds. When birds are very active near dawn and dusk, during spring and fall migration, glass is even more difficult to see. According to scientists, window strikes are the third leading cause of avian mortality, behind habitat loss and outdoor cats.
With these statistics in mind, the NEC has a ceramic frit pattern on the large glass windows so that birds are able to see them as they fly on by us. While it barely affects our ability to see out, it enables flying birds to envision a barrier, instead of a thruway. We are happy to be part of a forward trend of bird-safe building design!
In compliance with the Baltimore City Green Construction Code, the NEC was built to be the equivalent of LEED Silver standards although cost prohibited certification. Given our status as an Arboretum, we make every effort to be environmentally sustainable. For example, as part of our renovation process, we worked with CityScape Engineering to create a storm water management design for the building that includes cisterns to collect runoff. We sourced local fallen wood from neighboring Camp Small to build our “backyard” sheds and fences as well as the Ash table in our resource center, beautifully created by local Sandtown Furniture Company.
Carrying out into the new Jean and Sidney Silber Teaching Garden attached to the NEC, we again used recycled “fallen Cylburn wood” benches. The garden plan incorporated a stormwater plan that is designed to improve water quality on the grounds including displays of plants that thrive in our region and minimize runoff. We designed the NEC to be a place to not only learn about trees, but also various ways that we can care for our land and minimize damage to the planet.