Outdoor Nature Classrooms

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A relatively new area for NV5, the design of Outdoor Nature Classrooms for young children is proving to be an extremely fun and rewarding exercise for our landscape architects. As landscape architects, we consider ourselves stewards of the environment, we care about it and want to see it preserved. Working primarily in an ever expanding urban environment we recognize that newer generations of young people spend less and less time in nature. We are concerned, as are those who sponsored the projects on these pages, that those children will grow into adults who enjoy no meaningful connection with nature, adults who will not care for the natural world as carefully and with as much enthusiasm as we do. These projects are designed to provide children growing up in park-starved areas an opportunity to interact with and learn about the natural world and its materials, helping to ensure that future generations will not be fearful nor disinterested in nature. Instead, they will possess a healthy curiosity and respect for it.

Nature Explore Classroom

Círculo de la Hispanidad - Hempstead, NY

NV5 designed an outdoor nature classroom for Círculo de la Hispanidad’s Evergreen Charter School. The “classrooms” were created in two small areas within the parking lot of the schoolyard. The design allows young students to learn about science by playing and working with natural materials in a hands-on fashion.

Home Depot Garden

New York Restoration Project - New York, NY

Sponsored by the New York Restoration Project, founded by Bette Midler and funded by the Home Depot Foundation, Home Depot Garden was a 20’ x 100’ vacant city lot in East Harlem that NV5 transformed into a children’s learning garden designed in accordance with Arbor Day Foundation guidelines to qualify for a “Nature Explore Classroom Certification.”

“The community loves it. People in the neighborhood can use it as their backyard.”

— Nik Cherov in Arbor Day magazine

Middle Country Public Library “Explorium”

Centereach, NY

NV5 redesigned an existing unused outdoor garden space as an outdoor nature classroom, or Explorium, to supplement on-going youth activities and programs. The Explorium includes: water and messy materials areas, climbing and crawling, a quiet activities area, a shade structure, seating, and a small performance stage all connected by a brick-paved garden path.

“The Explorium gets kids active and moving to interact with materials outside”

— Sandy Feinberg, MCPL Director “I think it is beautiful, there are so many nice things here.”

— Carolyn Stein, Parent