The Tom Ridge Environmental Center is a center on the grounds of

Presque Isle State Park Presque Isle State Park () is a Pennsylvania State Park on an arching, sandy peninsula that juts into Lake Erie, west of the city of Erie, in Millcreek Township, Erie County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The peninsula sweeps northe ...

Erie, Pennsylvania Erie (; ) is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. Erie is the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania and the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 ...

. Named after former Pennsylvania Governor and former U.S. Department of Homeland Security Director

Tom Ridge Thomas Joseph Ridge (born August 26, 1945) is an American politician and author who served as the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security from 2001 to 2003, and the first United States Secretary of Homeland Security from 2003 to 2005. ...

, the center opened on 26 May 2006. The center has of space including interpretive exhibits highlighting local and regional

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' ...

and

fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is ''funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as ''Biota (ecology ...

, as well as information on the human history and culture of the area. The center also has a

large-format Large format refers to any imaging format of or larger. Large format is larger than "medium format", the or size of Hasselblad, Mamiya, Rollei, Kowa, and Pentax cameras (using 120- and 220-roll film), and much larger than the frame o ...

movie theater, a gift shop, a cafe, a visitors center, and an observation tower of that overlooks

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also h ...

and Waldameer Park and Water World. The facility also has five conference rooms and eight laboratories for environmental education and research of supporting organizations, plus the administrative offices of several environmental and conservation groups and agencies. The center was designed by Wallace, Roberts & Todd Architects, and received the 2007

American Society of Landscape Architects The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) is a professional association for landscape architects in the United States. The ASLA's mission is to advance landscape architecture through advocacy, communication, education, and fellowship ...

President's Award for design-build projects in Delaware and Pennsylvania. The parking lot in front of the facility was previously occupied by a drive-in theater, the Peninsula, which opened in 1969 and closed in 2001 (five years before the environmental center opened)

History

External links

WebsitePA DCNR Website

References

Tom Ridge Environmental Center Natural history museums in Pennsylvania Nature centers in Pennsylvania Protected areas of Erie County, Pennsylvania {{Pennsylvania-struct-stub