The Tom Ridge Environmental Center is an educational facility on the grounds of

Presque Isle State Park Presque Isle State Park ( ) is a List of Pennsylvania state parks, Pennsylvania State Park on an arching, sandy peninsula jutting into Lake Erie, west of the city of Erie, Pennsylvania, Erie, in Millcreek Township, Erie County, Pennsylvania ...

Erie, Pennsylvania Erie is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, fifth-most populous city in Pennsylvania and the most populous in Northwestern Pen ...

, United States. Designed by Wallace, Roberts & Todd Architects, this building was awarded the 2007 President's Award for design-build projects in Delaware and Pennsylvania by the American Society of Landscape Architects.

History and notable features

Named after former

Governor of Pennsylvania The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

and U.S.

Secretary of Homeland Security The United States secretary of homeland security is the head of the United States Department of Homeland Security, the federal department tasked with ensuring public safety in the United States. The secretary is a member of the Cabinet of the U ...

Tom Ridge Thomas Joseph Ridge (born August 26, 1945) is an American politician and author who served in the Presidency of George W. Bush, George W. Bush administration as the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security from 2001 to 2003 and as the U ...

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

flora Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...

and

fauna Fauna (: faunae or faunas) is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding terms for plants and fungi are ''flora'' and '' funga'', respectively. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively ...

, as well as information on the human history and culture of the area. The center also has a large-format movie theater, a gift shop, a cafe, a visitors' center, and an observation tower of that overlooks

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( ) 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 also has the shortest avera ...

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 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). Located next to the parking lot was a small wind turbine constructed in 2007. It was removed after several incidents in which ice chunks were flung from the blades and damaged the roof of the building. This also proposed threats to the public, especially in the parking lo

External links

WebsitePA DCNR Website

References

{{authority control Museums in Erie, Pennsylvania, Tom Ridge Environmental Center Natural history museums in Pennsylvania Nature centers in Pennsylvania Protected areas of Erie County, Pennsylvania