A natural fit

The Apple Creek YMCA Program Center

For generations, Fox Cities children have learned to love nature and the outdoors by attending YMCA summer camps in northern Wisconsin. In June, the YMCA of the Fox Cities will bring the outdoor experience closer to home with the opening of its Apple Creek Program Center on the north side of Appleton.

The 26,000-square-foot facility and adjacent 104-acre nature preserve will help the organization expand its local environmental education offerings, while hosting a variety of traditional YMCA programs.

“The Apple Creek location is really a dream come true for so many people. From an environmental educator’s viewpoint, it just doesn’t get much better than this,” says Shane Vondracek, director of environmental education for the YMCA.

In 2005, Appleton industrialist Bruce Purdy and his wife Barbara donated the 13-acre, $4.6 million building site, $3 million in cash and the adjacent Bruce B. Purdy nature Preserve to the YMCA. To date, the Purdys’ total donation has exceeded $8 million.

Purdy died Feb. 27 at his home in Tiburon, Calif. The former Appleton Wire Works (later, Albany International) executive began buying farmland in the town of Freedom off Ballard Road in 1959. His family raised beef cattle and feed crops on the property for many years, while continuing to acquire additional parcels. The acreage includes rolling hills, ponds, wetlands and timber lands.

When Purdy’s donation of land and cash was announced in August 2005, Purdy’s son Tom said the gift was a great legacy for his father, who learned to swim at Y camp as a child and remained active with the organization for many years.

Designed with environment in mind
Project architect Stephen Gries, principal of Gries Architectural Group, says the opportunity to design a building that fit within its stunning surroundings was both an honor and a challenge.

“The property is one of the most beautiful areas in the Fox Cities,” says Gries. “But we did encounter a few bumps along the way.”

As architects verified the exact footprint of the building on the site, they discovered extensive wetlands that would limit where construction could occur. After obtaining approvals from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and making necessary site and building modifications, design and construction proceeded smoothly.

“There was one silver lining to the wetlands issue,” says Gries. “The site studies revealed a significant amount of invasive vegetation that the owner was able to replace during construction with native and adaptive vegetation to improve the overall environmental quality of the property.”

Appleton YMCA Executive Director Carol Peterson, Vondracek and other staff members worked with architects to plan interior spaces to support the environmental education program.

“The large environmental classroom gives us direct access to the trail system and other outdoor spaces, so we can bring the outdoors inside for further study and exploration,” says Vondracek.

Peterson says the YMCA will not pursue LEED certification for the building, although designers incorporated many environmentally-sound materials and systems.

Theresa Lehman, director of sustainable services at Miron Construction, worked with architects and YMCA representatives to ensure that the facility met stringent criteria for environmental performance.

“Overall, we will exceed energy efficiency standards by about 15 percent,” she says.

In addition, the project team implemented a stormwater management plan to control site runoff, specified islands for tree plantings in the parking lot to reduce heat generated by the blacktop, and put in place an indoor air quality management plan.

Lehman says many building materials were sourced locally, including exterior stone quarried near Fond du Lac. Other items contained a high percentage of recycled material. Contractors set a goal of keeping 75 percent of construction waste material out of local landfills.

“A sustainable building should strike the right balance between economics, the environment and the societal needs of its users – what we refer to as the triple-bottom line,” says Lehman. “The project team has done a great job of living up to that definition of sustainability.”

Peterson says the adjacent nature preserve, including trail system, amphitheater and outdoor classroom extends the reach of the YMCA’s typical programming. “I refer to this as our ‘green fitness’ option,” she says.

The facility will host traditional YMCA programs including pre-school and pre-kindergarten, drop-in child care, group fitness, strength and cardio-training along with other services. “As resources become available, we hope to add a gymnasium and pool as well,” she adds.