The Site
Located on 3,200 acres in Front Royal, Virginia, CRC is a unique facility where staff are involved in ground-breaking research to conserve endangered species and ecosystems locally, nationally, and around the world. CRC focuses on only 30 or 40 species at any given time- which can change from year to year, depending on research needs and recommendations from the Zoo and the conservation community. The ability to house 10 to 40 individuals of each species allows staff to gather and share scientific data to build the conservation field. More than 100 scientists and trainees conduct research in animal husbandry, reproduction, nutrition, genetics, and preventative medicine, in addition to a cadre of ecological and conservation technology researchers. The large pastures and barn complexes (many built around 100-year-old historic Remount barns) allow housing for animal herds in a naturalistic setting. Laboratories contain state-of-the-art equipment for monitoring species and ecosystem health. Large tracts of forested land, adjacent to Shenandoah National Park, accommodate long-term ecological research and professional training in field techniques for conservation worldwide. CRC is now expanding its training programs and designing a “conservation campus”, to facilitate accredited courses for both undergraduate college students and global conservation leaders, in partnership with George Mason University.
Overview
This advanced seminar will explore the relationship between landscape architecture and conservation biology, using the Conservation and Research Center (CRC) of the Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park (NZP) as a departure point. A priority of this project is to explore an area of the site that could partially serve the public while meeting CRC’s primary research and training missions. Currently the CRC is closed to the public, and the animal facilities are almost exclusively directed at research, training and endangered species breeding/management. This seminar seeks to establish an interdependent, and symbiotic relationship between scientific investigations and public education. Our research will tap into the expanded fields of Conservation Biology and Habitat design looking in detail at the historical relationships between plants, animals, humans and the built environment. We will develop an understanding of the CRC’s existing operational networks and infrastructure individually and in their own context. We will then speculate on the opportunities to re-calibrate these systems to incorporate the public realm. We will look at how the integrated public realm of the CRC might be understood as a component of the twenty-first century movement in conservation biology.
