Groundbreaking for Merry Lea's "green" building focuses on healing

WOLF LAKE, Ind. – When Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center breaks ground for phase one of its collegiate facility Wednesday, May 4 at 3 p.m., participants may find themselves spreading compost rather than watching a shovel spear the earth. The ceremony will take place at the building site, which is adjacent to the Merry Lea Farmstead, located on C.R. 425W in Noble County.

"The word 'groundbreaking' suggests that human development must break the ground," said Luke Gascho, Merry Lea's executive director, "but we hope that our project will help heal and renew the earth."

The groundbreaking ceremony May 4 will celebrate the sustainable objectives of the project. Merry Lea's collegiate facility – called Rieth Village after Merry Lea's founding donors, Lee and Mary Jane Rieth – was designed using the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system. LEED provides rigorous guidelines in areas such as energy and atmosphere, water efficiency, use of environmentally friendly materials and indoor air quality. The project is registered at the platinum level – the highest level of any registered project in Indiana.

For example, LEED guidelines specify that when the project's contractor, Hamilton Hunter Builders of Fort Wayne, begin the construction process, they are limited in the weight of the equipment they can use. This is to avoid compacting the soil. They must also reseed any topsoil left exposed longer than two weeks with a cover crop to prevent erosion. After the building is constructed, the surrounding site, which had been an eroded farm field overgrown with invasive species such as autumn olive, will be seeded with native plants.

The $2 million initial phase of Rieth Village which begins this spring, will include two cottages providing housing for up to 32 students and a third cottage that will serve as a classroom and office building initially. Special features of the infrastructure will include a 10-kilowatt wind generator, a wastewater treatment system, solar water heaters and an integrated system for storm water management. The design team has also developed plans for a second phase which includes a 20,000-square foot academic building and four more cottages. Construction of phase two will begin in three to five years after an additional $6.5 million of capital is raised.

Merry Lea is constructing Rieth Village in order to accommodate new undergraduate and graduate-level study and research. Beginning June 2007, Merry Lea will offer 10-week summer tracks of courses in natural history and agroecology. Students from schools other than Goshen College are welcome to participate and transfer their credits.

"The diversity of ecosystems we have here at Merry Lea is a treasure that must be shared," says Gascho. "By enabling students to live on site, near the ecosystems they are studying, we will offer a unique immersion not available at most academic institutions." Living in sustainable buildings will be an important part of the experience. Students will monitor their own energy usage, learn how the water they use is purified by wetland plants and discover the benefits of ground source heat pumps.

The consortium of architects, engineers and contractors working on Merry Lea's facility include Morrison Kattman Menze Inc. and Hamilton Hunter Builders, both of Fort Wayne; Conservation Design Forum of Elmhurst, Ill.; Eta Engineers of Champaign, Ill.; and Natural Systems Inc., Santa Fe, N.M.

Merry Lea, located in Noble County south of Wolf Lake, is a 1,150-acre natural sanctuary for northern Indiana's plants and animals. Its diverse landscape includes wetlands, prairies, meadows, upland and lowland forests, bogs and lake shores. Merry Lea also provides environmental education for people of all ages and a setting for re-creating opportunities that benefit the human body and spirit without exploiting the land. This nature preserve hosts over 7,000 children and hundreds of college students each year.

Merry Lea, created with the assistance of the Nature Conservancy and the generosity of Lee A. and Mary Jane Rieth, is owned and operated by Goshen College. For more information, go to www.goshen.edu/merrylea or call (260) 799-5869.

Editors: Reporters and photographers are warmly invited to cover the groundbreaking. For more information, contact News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

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