nARCHITECTS, PLLC

Jones Beach Energy and Nature Center

Jones Beach Energy and Nature Center

JONES BEACH ENERGY AND NATURE CENTER

NARCHITECTS

ARCHITECTS
NARCHITECTS

SIZE
10,000 sqft - 25,000 sqft

BUDGET
$10M - 50M

YEAR
2020

LOCATION
Wantagh, United States

CATEGORY
Cultural › Cultural Center, Educational › Other

The Jones Beach Energy and Nature Center will inspire a new generation of environmental stewards, sharing a deeper understanding of how nature and energy are connected, their complicated history, and their mutually beneficial potential.

Jones Beach Energy and Nature Center
Jones Beach Energy and Nature Center

As a net-zero building that meets the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act’s objectives almost thirty years before its targets, the building itself, as well as its real-time energy performance, will be prominently displayed as part of the permanent exhibition.

The building’s linear footprint emerges from the reuse of foundations belonging to a Robert Moses-era bathhouse, extended on two sides with additional piles.

Jones Beach Energy and Nature Center
Jones Beach Energy and Nature Center

At 320 feet in length, the new one-story building has been designed as a “chalet for all”, continuing the public legacy of the site.

Organized around a series of interior volumes housing offices, support spaces, and classrooms, a continuous sequence of exhibition spaces flows outwards to a shaded exterior perimeter deck, and onwards to the site at large.

Jones Beach Energy and Nature Center
Jones Beach Energy and Nature Center

The building’s distinctive wave-like form, signaling the sloping ceilings of the gallery spaces within, conveys waves in both energy and nature.

9.5 acres of Moses-era concrete surface parking have been demolished, to be reused as a subbase under the building, new roads, and a new immersive landscape.

Envisioned as a dune restoration project using native species, the landscape will also perform as an armature for an outdoor interpretive exhibition.

Jones Beach Energy and Nature Center


Jones Beach Energy and Nature Center

Jones Beach Energy and Nature Center


Jones Beach Energy and Nature Center
Jones Beach Energy and Nature Center

nARCHITECTS, PLLC
T +1 718 2600845
nARCHITECTS, PLLC
68 Jay St # 317, Brooklyn, NY 11201, United States