Nature center receives fourth award this year

Naperville Park District's Knoch Knolls Nature Center, 320 Knoch Knolls Road, recently received its fourth award since its opening in October 2014.

At a meeting in Chicago in early December, the Illinois Chapter of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers recognized the Nature Center with a 2015 Excellence in Engineering Award for its heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC) system.

Designed to be energy efficient, the HVAC system performed very close to the predicted level of electric energy use in its first year of operations.

Project Manager Peggy Pelkonen attended the award ceremony on behalf of the Naperville Park District and several representatives attended from Wight & Company, the architect and construction manager for the project.

Designed as a model green building, Knoch Knolls Nature Center achieved Platinum level certification earlier this year in the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program. Features such as the HVAC system helped earn points toward the Platinum certification.

Funding for the sustainable design, energy efficiency and renewable energy features was provided, in part, by a grant from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation.

In November, Knoch Knolls Nature Center also received the Engineering News Record Midwest's Best Project of the Year Award in the category of small projects. The project is profiled in the Nov. 16 edition of ENR Midwest and will be entered in the competition for ENR's "National Best of the Best Projects" in 2016.

In October, the American Institute of Architects Northeast Illinois awarded the Knoch Knolls Nature Center a Design Excellence Award. The nature center won the Merit in Architecture for Distinguished Building Over $3 Million category, with recognition for its outstanding features that include photovoltaic panels, a rain harvesting system, day-lighting, a green roof and educational exhibits that illustrate the building's theme, "Celebrating Water."

Finally, Knoch Knolls Nature Center won the Outstanding Facility and Park Award in January 2015 from the Illinois Parks and Recreation Association in the category of New Specific Use Facility. The center also was recognized in 2014 by The Conservation Foundation with the Sustainable Development Award for its environmentally friendly design.

The nature center currently is featured in an article by project architect Lois Vitt Sale in Parks & Rec Business.