An early, conceptual rendering of CBF new environmental education and community center at Pleasure House Point.

Our Vision for Pleasure House Point

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) hopes to create an environmental education/community center at Pleasure House Point that will serve to engage, inform, and inspire the Hampton Roads community to solve the challenges facing the Bay in innovative, sustainable, and collaborative ways.

Our vision includes:

For more information or to contribute by phone, contact Kate Wilson, CBF Director of Development, Hampton Roads Office, at kwilson@cbf.org or 757-622-1964.

A Living Building: CBF's vision for the environmental center is to create a cutting-edge "green" facility so in concert with its natural surroundings that it has no impact on the land, air, and water of the surrounding creeks, river, and Chesapeake Bay. Every aspect of the center—its location, materials, construction, utilities, operation, and use—will meet the strictest environmental standards, resulting quite simply in the most sustainable building possible.

CBF's goal for the center is to meet the "Living Building Challenge" (LBC), a specific and highly exceptional designation from International Living Future Institute. This rare designation means the building has "net zero" impact on the environment, not just at completion of construction but a full year after the center has been open and operating. As a Living Building, the center will be a national and international model for green building techniques, materials, energy efficiency, water use, and landscaping—a facility the entire Hampton Roads community can take pride in, visit, use, and enjoy.

Community partnership: As the last large, undeveloped waterfront property on the Lynnhaven River, Pleasure House Point was saved and permanently protected by a community-wide conservation effort led by local residents and conservation groups, the City of Virginia Beach, the Trust for Public Land, and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. The environmental center will continue this partnership ethic. CBF hopes to provide office space for a local conservation group(s), meeting space for community organizations, and environmental education for students and teachers from across the region.

Environmental Education: The environmental center will be the headquarters for CBF's award-winning outdoor environmental education programs in Hampton Roads. CBF will continue its Hampton Roads field education programs, offering a new natural learning environment for thousands of students, teachers, citizens, and community leaders to participate in hands-on experiences exploring nearby Pleasure House Creek, Crab Creek, the Lynnhaven River, and the Chesapeake Bay.

Restoration: The environmental center will be an active demonstration site for important and relevant restoration projects, including living shorelines, oyster, wetland, and other habitat restoration, and stormwater and other water quality improvement initiatives.