The International Architecture Awards 2014

The Perot Museum of Nature and Science (PMNS) is expected to receive over one million visitors per year upon opening in 2013. The museum’s exhibits will be learning labs focusing on biodiversity, natural history, scientific methodology, and human development. A collaborative design team envisioned the creation of a building and site that would not only house exhibits, but also be equal active partners promoting the founders’ goal to “remind us that the universe is grander than ourselves.” The landscape architect’s dynamic site design creates outdoor learning exhibits by exposing visitors to five primary Texas ecologies and celebrating the interaction of local environmental systems with this urban structure.

The project’s outdoor plaza spaces are conceived of as a series of tectonic platforms that appear to heave out of the ground and envelop the museum’s cube form. The site’s dynamic design, contrasts with the right-angles of the cube overhead, and plays an equal role in visually promoting this attraction that will be showcased to prospective visitors. At the local level, the view of this “green plinth” from the freeway and the adjacent city streets will alert motorists and pedestrians to the presence of a compelling new development. The site platforms are meant to function as flexible event and exhibit space accommodating gatherings of various sizes throughout the day. The landscape architect brings the project’s spirit of learning about the natural world to the project’s planting and hardscape design concept by making a visible, sustainable, expression of plant life and minerals.

Sustainable and Generative Elements
The PMNS is one of over 150 projects participating in the Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES™) two-year Pilot Program. Key to this initiative is the philosophy of creating designs that rehabilitate and improve their ecological health. Accordingly, this urban brownfield’s pollution is capped and contained. Although the containment strategy limits the depth of allowable excavation, the proposal includes a plan for shallow bioswales throughout the parking lot to capture/filter storm water runoff. Rainwater capturing and recycling are integral to the building and site design. An underground cistern collects up to 50,000 gallons of air conditioning condensation and roof and parking surface runoff. This resource is recycled as site irrigation and as a supplemental source for the toilet and cooling tower function. Rainwater through the site is revealed during storm events through two gravity-fed mechanisms: (1) a dramatic waterfall and (2) an interactive rain pipe water collection feature on the upper plaza area. Fountains that support wildlife and aquatic plantings are supplied with potable municipal water. However, even with these water features, the landscape architect minimizes evaporative water loss by keeping a narrow runnel profile and locating the pond in a naturally humid area. Site construction and plant materials for the PMNS are sourced within a 500 mile radius of the project. Plants specified are not only native to the region, but sited in a way that will give them the greatest chance of long-term viability in their urban condition.

Design Process Innovation
The design team utilized Building Information Modeling (BIM) in the design and site analysis phases to facilitate collaboration and to recognize complex spatial design relationships. BIM provides information that influences site design and calculates a detailed analysis of cut/fill. The BIM models display relationships among layers of infrastructure including cisterns, piers and footings, and large planting soil depth requirements so that the design team can make highly-informed time and cost-saving decisions.