There may have been no better symbol of the old economy in Greater Cincinnati than the Fernald plant. Since 1952, the plant was a link in the government's weapons chain, as workers processed uranium to be used in nuclear bombs. The 1,050 acre site closed in 1989, but its transformation began almost immediately. Through a massive investment of $4.4 billion, persistence, and imagination, all driven by tenacious community organizers, the old uranium processing complex was torn down, cleaned up and transformed into the Fernald Nature Preserve.
The centerpiece is the Fernald Preserve Visitors Center, once a pre-engineered steel warehouse and now a certified LEED-Platinum building. The $3 million, 10,800-square-foot Visitors Center includes a geothermal-based heat-pump system, high-efficiency electrical, water and plumbing fixtures, window placements that optimize sunlight, low-emitting building materials, and a bio-wetland on the site that will process all the building’s wastewater. Even the building’s history exhibits, designed by the faculty and students at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning, use sustainable products and materials.
The center was created by the design/build team of Megen Construction Co. and glaserworks Architecture of Cincinnati. The site is being managed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Legacy Management. It opened in August and was dedicated last week by Deputy Secretary of Energy Jeffrey Kupfer.
Writer: David Holthaus
Source: Sandi Straetker, Megen Construction
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