Kreher Preserve & Nature Center Environmental Education Building

It’s hard to imagine a more stimulating learning environment for children than the Environmental Education Building, tucked into the forest at the Auburn University’s 120-acre Kreher Preserve & Nature Center. Architects designed the building, described as a “little jewel box,” to promote wonder and exploration of the natural world while allowing its young visitors to experience the warmth and beauty of a wood-framed building. Home to Kreher’s Woodland Wonders Nature Preschool, the Center also provides educational programs and field experiences for local school-aged children.

Imagined as an extension of the network of trails running throughout the Preserve, the Environmental Education Building is organized along a central “learning trail” spine. The structure’s spatial arrangement embraces the landscape, and wood’s natural materiality and accessibility within the building itself invite student engagement and encourage connection with the trees outside. 

Light-filled classroom spaces in the 4,989-square-foot building are mixed with an administrative area and a series of open and covered porches that allow activities to spill out into the surrounding forest. The Type V-B structure was framed using southern yellow pine glulam beams and columns, CLT roof panels and shear walls, and dimension lumber. The building also features wood windows, doors, flooring, paneling, exterior siding, and trim. 

The butterfly roof structures provide shade while also inviting nature inside, and clerestory windows provide ample views and allow daylight and natural ventilation to flood the interior—important for Alabama’s humid climate. The dramatic roof shape and cantilevered mass timber panels also demonstrate the two-way spanning capabilities of CLT.

Inside, the biophilic benefits of wood—which connects students to nature through sight, smell and touch—are on full display, helping blur the boundaries between outdoors and in. Careful detailing left the interior free from the visual distraction of mechanical systems. Designers added U-shaped CLT shear walls to provide lateral support and strategically located light-frame wood cavity walls and soffits help hide conduit, ductwork, and other mechanical infrastructure. Tall, slanted ceilings, area rugs, and shades help manage acoustics. A robust elevated floor structure, set on concrete piers and built using glulam beams and closely spaced 2x12 wood joists, helps minimize vibration.

Built with funding from the State of Alabama, this project showcases the capabilities of Alabama’s forest industry and promotes CLT as a structurally efficient, sustainable building material. Timber materials used to construct the building were all sourced and manufactured within 125 miles of the site.

This project demonstrates that design succeeds when the location and structure work together to inspire learning. The Environmental Education Building provides a hub for the community—a place for education, rest and relaxation, and connection with nature. It also highlights the potential for combining mass timber and light-frame wood systems in innovative ways, with remarkable results.