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LEED Gold Walden Pond Visitor Center honors Thoreau’s legacy

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The Thoreau Society honors the author’s legacy with the sustainable, LEED Gold Walden Pond Visitor Center in Massachusetts. This eco-friendly building pays homage to naturalist Thoreau, who wrote “Walden,” a famous text in which he journaled his observations of the local environment at Walden Pond. The Walden Pond Visitor Center has an exceptionally small carbon footprint, just the way Thoreau would have wanted. A solar canopy in the parking lot helps power the building. The center sits nestled behind trees and is an all-electric, net-zero building that implements Passive House principles. The building systems operate without fossil fuels. Triple-pane windows and extra insulation keep the heat in during winter. In warmer weather, windows, ceiling fans, and clerestories offer natural ventilation and light, reducing the need for air conditioning and artificial lighting. Related: LEED Gold HEC Montreal will house AI research The walls and floors of the visitor center are made from local maple, ash, and red oak. Water-efficient plumbing fixtures and low/no-VOC paints and finishes were used throughout. Solar hot water and Variable Refrigerant Flow heat pump systems power the building. Outside, an electric charging station allows visitors to charge their vehicles. Ken Bassett, chair of the Walden Pond Advisory Board, helped lead the visitor center project. Bassett brought together the Thoreau Society, the Walden Woods Project, and the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). The DCR hired Maryann Thompson Architects of Watertown, landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc., of Cambridge, and ObjectIDEA of Salem. Together, these teams helped The Walden Pond Visitor Center reach LEED Gold. The Thoreau Society won a public bid to manage the Shop at Walden Pond. “The store is an important outreach component of the Society’s Mission to stimulate interest in and foster education about Thoreau’s life, works, and legacy,” the Thoreau Society said in a statement. “As part of the Society’s commitment to the preservation of Thoreau Country, 10% of the net sales proceeds from the store will directly benefit Walden Pond State Reservation.” + The Tho r eau Society Images by Iwan Baan

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LEED Gold Walden Pond Visitor Center honors Thoreau’s legacy


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