CBF's Brock Environmental Center
at Pleasure House Point

Salvaged Items Needed CBF's wish list of salvaged items for the CBF Brock Environmental Center includes: champagne corks solid wood doors flooring and interior wood trim cabinets and hardware granite or stone countertops bathroom mirrors wall-mounted sinks and a mop sink lockers ceramic tile wooden barrels (for rain cisterns) cypress or cedar ship-lap style siding parking lot wheel stops For more information or to contribute salvaged materials, send an e-mail to hamptonroads@cbf.org.

CBF plans to create a facility at Pleasure House Point that will serve to engage, inform, and inspire the Hampton Roads community about the clean water challenges facing the Bay watershed and the solutions we all can work toward together. The Brock Environmental Center will be a model of sustainability and education about the Bay and our local rivers. Every aspect of the center—its location, materials, construction, utilities, operation, and use—will meet the strictest environmental standards and set a new bar for sustainable building. The building's footprint will use less than an acre of CBF's 10-acre parcel, a very small percentage of the total area of Pleasure House Point.

The center will house office space for CBF and local conservation partner Lynnhaven River NOW, include space for community meetings, and serve CBF's award-winning environmental education program which provides outdoor watershed experiences for 2,500 students and teachers across Hampton Roads each year.

Environmental Education

The CBF Brock Environmental Center at Pleasure House Point will be the headquarters for outdoor environmental education programs in Hampton Roads. Nearby Pleasure House Creek, Crab Creek, the Lynnhaven River, and the Chesapeake Bay offer opportunities for significant outdoor learning experiences for thousands of students, teachers, citizens, and community leaders.

CBF's environmental education programs link the natural environment to human activities along the Chesapeake Bay. The programs enable students and teachers to conduct their own research through hands-on biological sampling, chemical analysis, and physical measurements. In addition to using critical thinking skills to evaluate the health of the ecological system, participants also gain a unique perspective on the relationship between water quality, fisheries, and economics. Our courses combine many academic disciplines—earth science, biology, history, art, English/writing, math, chemistry, civics, economics, government, and responsible citizenship. As a result, students become exceptionally informed and inspired, valuing the Bay and its watershed as a living, connected system.

A $20 million campaign has been launched to support creation of the Brock Environmental Center, enhance environmental education programs, improve habitat, and create a venue for community collaboration. The campaign includes $10 million to acquire the land and construct the building; $5 million for programs to improve water quality, including advocacy, environmental education, restoration, and outreach; and $5 million to endow the center and its education and community programs. If you would like to contribute to the campaign you can make your gift online at cbf.org/PHPdonate, or contact Kate Wilson, CBF Director of Development, Hampton Roads Office, at kwilson@cbf.org or 757-622-1964.

Raising the Bar for Building Green

The CBF Brock Environmental Center is being designed to meet the Living Building Challenge^TM, a rare designation that requires the building meet a set of strict environmental standards established by the International Living Future Institute and be so in tune with its site that it has "net zero" impact on the surrounding land, air, and water.

As a Living Building, the Brock Environmental Center will be a national and international model, a building the entire Hampton Roads community can take pride in, visit, use, and enjoy. It would be the first of its kind in Virginia and among only 18 prospective Living Buildings on the East Coast. (Learn more about the Living Building Challenge on the ILFI's website ilbi.org/lbc)

The building will capture, store, and use only as much water as inhabitants need and use during the course of a year. This will be accomplished by, for example, reusing rain water for hand washing and by using no-flush Clivus composting toilets. All greywater (wastewater generated from sinks and showers) and additional rainwater will be filtered slowly through a native vegetation landscape design technique called biofiltration, also known as a rain garden.

The building will generate as much energy as its inhabitants use during the course of a year by employing photo-voltaic solar roof panels (which will provide 60 percent of the Brock Environmental Center's energy), operating two small wind turbines (which will provide 40 percent of the Brock Environmental Center's energy), and using aggressive energy conservation techniques such as highly efficient geo-thermal heating and cooling; natural day lighting; dynamic, architecturally-based ventilation systems; and weather-dependent window opening patterns.

Facts About the CBF Brock Environmental Center

Expected Completion Date: late 2014

Site Areas/Acreages: CBF's parcel is 10 acres. Of that, the Brock Environmental Center, including decks, ramps, and a pavilion, will comprise 0.5 acre. The entrance drop-off road and paths add approximately 0.65 acre for a total of less than 1.18 acre (less than 1% of the entire Pleasure House Point tract).

Design Team

• Architect: SmithGroupJJR, Washington, D.C. (this firm also designed the Philip Merrill Environmental Center, CBF's headquarters building and the first LEED platinum building)
• Landscape and Civil Design: WPL, Virginia Beach
• General Contractor: Hourigan Construction, Virginia Beach
• Owner's Rep: Skanska, Virginia Beach

Dimensions (at current design)

• Height: 
• Grade (ground level) is 4'5" (above sea level) 
• Main building is 25'5" (from grade/ground level) 
• Multipurpose room is 35'6" (from grade/ground level)
• Wind turbines (2) – 81' at highest point 
• Finished floor elevation is 13'8" above sea level (allows for future sea level rise and tidal flooding during severe weather) 
• Length: ~260' (without pavilion) 
• Depth: 40' 
• Area: the building is just under 9,000 sq. ft. 
• Applied Space: 
• 1/3 office space: open office space layout (12 CBF desks, 8 Lynnhaven River NOW desks, 1 City of Virginia Beach Parks and Rec staff person desk); 3 intern/volunteer spaces 
• 1/3 CBF, LRNow, and community meeting space: large room: 85-100 people; medium room: 18-20 people; small room: 6 people; huddle room: 4 people 
• 1/3 common space: lobby, bathrooms, deck, walkways, kitchen, utility 
• Outdoor pavilion: 75 students