Education and Conference Center
John Rosenow of the National Arbor Day Foundation (NADF) had a vision of a conference facility on their Nebraska City campus where environmentalists from around the world could converge in a facility with all of the modern conveniences, yet in a rural setting. He envisioned a building much like the great hotels in the National Parks. Perry Poyner wanted someone with intimate, accurate knowledge of this type of architecture. And so began my career…
Many visitors spend entire weeks at the lodge without knowing some of the incredible things that make this a truly unique facility:
There is a wood-burning boiler plant that heats the building, using locally-sourced wood chips. During design it was found that the design of this facility could be modified so that it also provided cooling as well. This building sits low, to the west of the main lodge.
There are eleven different types of wood used as trim and wainscoting throughout the lodge. The main lobby walls are clad in “butternut”, otherwise known as pecan. A board room in the center of the housing facility has walls clad in sassafras.
The entire housing facility is heavy timber construction, with wood deck bearing on 2x wood walls. The pool utilizes a clear span of wood deck bearing on glu-lam beams.
All window sills and fireplace mantles are honed limestone, with chimneys and exterior cladding utilizing hand-cut limestone; all using locally-quarried (Kansas) limestone.
There were originally 96 guest rooms, most with two double beds. About five years after the completion of construction, an addition, adding another 48 guest rooms, brought the total number of guest rooms to 154; 150 rooms seeming the “sweet spot” for a facility of this size. Soon after the addition was finished, it was realized that attendees of conferences now expect single rooms, thus making this more of a destination hotel rather than a conference facility as originally envisioned.
The kitchen and main meeting rooms were sized to facilitate 400 attendees at a time (400 in a classroom setting could move across the lower lobby and all be seated in the lower dining room during full-day sessions).
The pool, while sized for lap-swimming, has now become a part of the spa that this destination hotel touts as an amenity.