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| James Learning Center |
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| Our future is bright because of our new Lynx Creek Site. A Special Use Authorization from the Prescott National Forest gives the Highlands Center permission to operate a beautiful 80-acre parcel at 1375 S. Walker Road near Lynx Lake. Here visitors discover ponderosa-pine covered valleys, deeply-shaded creekside areas, chaparral and woodland covered hillsides, remarkable geological formations, and amazing vistas. This is our classroom without walls.
Click here for hours and directions, and a trail map.
The Lynx Creek Site showcases environmentally sound building techniques including passive and active solar energy, water collection systems, a constructed wetlands waste management system, and drought-tolerant landscaping. The complete development of our Lynx Creek Site has been based on minimal impact and sustainable building practices. The James Learning Center has achieved a Gold Rating from the U.S. Green Building Council LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification program. The LEED Rating System is a set of guidelines that evaluate environmental performance and provide a definitive standard to measure and document our green building goals. We are working with local, state and national organizations to serve as a valuable resource for central Arizona environmental education and research.
Photo Album of the new Lynx Creek Site
Click on images to enlarge.
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| The James Learning Center construction photos. |
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| Crane moves beam into place. |
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| Timber & Beam Framing |
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| Poles & Beams Installation |
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| Kiwanis Amphitheater |
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| Lynx Creek Site Entrance |
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| View of Constructed Wetlands |
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| Kiwanis Amphitheater |
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| Restroom Building |
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| Kiwanis Amphitheater |
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| Lynx Creek Site Campus |
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| Lynx Creek Site Campus |
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| Childrens' Art Work in Restrooms |
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| Interpretive Trail Sign |
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| Equipoise |
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| Equipoise
Heather Johnson was commissioned by the Highlands Center for Natural History to create a large bronze sculpture for our new 80 acre campus.
She created this monument, which she has named "Equipoise", to help inspire and educate the curious observer of nature. That idea, and the sculpture itself, incorporates many important aspects of nature and education essential to the H.C.N.H. mission, not the least of which is their special hands-on method of teaching science and about the natural world. It invites people to touch it, to feel it, to walk around it, to investigate all its parts, and then to wonder about it. Children are be able to discover hidden insects among the spiraling manzanita branches.
Through the playful composition of plants and animals of the Central Arizona Highlands represented in this sculpture, visitors can learn about the interconnectedness, balance, and dynamism of ecological systems and relationships between the living and nonliving world.
To visit Heather's website and see more about this project, click here. |
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