Location:
Greenville, SC
Area:
27,500 SF
To better serve the growing number of Upstate students, Roper Mountain Science Center seized the opportunity to expand programming to provide immersive educational experiences that foster exploration and stewardship of local, natural resources.
Designed on what was the outdoor amphitheatre, the new RMSC building fits into the footprint of the previously existing structure to intentionally minimize disruption of the surrounding environment. Nestled in the mountain with pedestrian bridge access and dense nature views, specialized exhibits will teach sustainable living, water conversation, ecology, sustainability, and animal care. The Water Story Exhibit, for example, is an immersive multi-level experience that visualizes the process of the water cycle through the Greenville Watershed while the Nature Exhange generates enthusiasm for ethical collection, observation, and study of the natural world.
Programming of the Center will additionally be supported by STEM-based student-centered labs, interactive plant and animal habitats, classrooms, a teaching kitchen, and administrative space. These hands-on learning experience for students, and the public, will enable a better understanding of regional and global environmental challenges.
Associate Architect: Lee H. Skolnick Architecture + Design Partnership (LHSA+DP)
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Craig Gaulden Davis (CGD) has been working on Roper Mountain since the late sixties. Bob Wilson Amphitheater came first followed by a string of buildings commissioned by Greenville County Schools on the wooded, 62-acre property. Over the next few decades CGD designed T.C. Hooper Planetarium, F.W. Symmes Hall of Science, and the renowned Charles E. Daniel Observatory, home to the nation’s 8th largest refractor telescope. Today, Roper Mountain Science Center is a well-established center for hands-on learning and an educational pillar in our community.
