Architects hired for Houma's Wetlands Discovery Center

Published: Friday, March 23, 2012 at 10:20 p.m. Last Modified: Friday, March 23, 2012 at 10:20 p.m.

A design for Houma's planned youth-education center on wetland-science and coastal-restoration issues should be complete by this summer.

Organizers with the South Louisiana Wetlands Discovery Center say they hope to use the design to launch a fundraising campaign.

We're looking forward to taking the next step, said Martha Thibodeaux, president of the center's foundation. We want to prepare something visual and concrete to wage our capital campaign.

The center aims to teach middle- and high-school-age children about wetlands issues. It will be built on land behind the Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center and will also have exhibits to attract visitors.

Board members selected the Perez architectural firm of New Orleans to design the buildings. Audubon Studios, a design staff at the Audubon Nature Institute in New Orleans, will design the museum themes, habitats and exhibits.

Spackman, Mossop + Michaels, a group with experience designing for zoos, educational facilities and botanical gardens, will serve as landscape designer.

The group will pay Perez $54,910 for the design, which will be ready by June, said Jonathan Foret, the center's development director.

The group hopes to raise about $1.2 million to build the main building. It will continue to raise money to expand the center from there, which will cost about $4.5 million total, Foret said.

The center will have to renegotiate a deal with the Terrebonne Parish Council that set aside land for the center. The council agreed to set aside the land for five years to give organizers time to raise money; that deal expires later this year.

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Architects hired for Houma's Wetlands Discovery Center