![]() ![]() “It’s our responsibility to make something that has meaning and endures.”īeyond its aesthetics, the new Ellen Campus gives aspiring gorilla trekkers a natural jumping off point, and a place to educate themselves on the animals and environment they’re about to explore. “It was incredibly important that we try to be intentional about every design decision, having a maximum impact on the people and the places in which it serves,” Murphy said. ![]() Each building is also topped with a Green Roof, where native plants attract birds, bees, and other species with additional elevated vegetation. The stones that bolster the center’s walls and pathways are all volcanic rock from the surrounding landscape, hand cut by masons during the construction process. The three-year construction project employed 2,400 local workers, nearly a quarter of whom were women. The campus’ landscape and design is almost as impressive and important as the work going on inside. “We can bring career scientists together to think about what solutions we may need for climate change.” “This campus really serves as a training ground, not just for Rwanda, but for the region and internationally,” Stoinski added. Now, local teams can examine things like stress hormones in the gorillas’ stools to learn what might be stressing them out. In addition to giving researchers more room, the labs also allow scientists to perform analysis that previously had to be outsourced to the United States. Now we have six labs, and they’re absolutely gorgeous.” “We had one lab, it was a previous kitchen, you could fit about two people in it – one trainer and one student. Tara Stoinski said on a recent trip I took to the center. “We were working out of a rented facility 25 miles away, with one classroom for 400 university students,” Fossey Fund CEO Dr. ![]() The labs provide much-needed, state-of-the-art space for researchers to continue their conservation efforts. The buildings are equal parts education and research, beginning with a conservation center for visitors, then expanding back into working labs for Fossey Fund scientists. The intent, according to MASS Design CEO Michael Murphy, is to give guests the feeling of being a gorilla wandering through the mountains. The sprawling space spans a dozen acres, with three buildings connected by meandering pathways lined with jungle vegetation. The new Ellen Degeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund sits on an old potato farm just outside Volcanoes National Park in northwest Rwanda. ![]()
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