The Learning Barge

Crisman+Petrus Architects conceived the Learning Barge concept as a crucial component of the Money Point Sustainable Revitalization Plan in 2005. The intention was to create a moveable platform where citizens could learn about the processes of river sediment remediation, tidal wetland restoration, and the sustaining co-existence of human and ecological systems at Money Point and other Elizabeth River restoration sites. In January 2006 Phoebe Crisman brought the project to the University of Virginia School of Architecture, where she led a four-year research, design and fabrication effort by multi-disciplinary teams of UVA students and faculty. The holistic, integrated design approach involved multiple disciplines and several public, private and governmental institutions.

The Learning Barge was launched with fanfare on September 14, 2009. The Elizabeth River Project (ERP), in collaboration with several public partners, offers daily educational programs for K-12 school children and the public. Now visitors to the Learning Barge see, firsthand and in an interactive way, what the ordinarily abstract terms "remediation" and "natural processes" mean. The Learning Barge itself was designed as a didactic device reliant on natural systems - sun, wind, water, earth and biology - and built using primarily recycled materials. The Barge tells the story of the inextricable link between water and land, as well as the crucial balance between industrialized human activity and the environment on the Elizabeth River. Field trips to the Barge may be scheduled via the ERP website.

The 32'x120' environmental field station is off-the-grid and powered solely by site-based solar and wind energy systems. Photovoltaic panels and wind turbines provide power, an evacuated tube solar thermal array heats the classroom, and passive solar and day lighting concepts are used throughout. Rainwater is collected and filtered for non-potable use, and greywater is filtered in the onboard constructed wetland habitat. River water is manually pumped into native saltwater plant basins for testing and cleaning. Other sustainable building concepts include composting waste disposal and the use of recycled materials and sustainably harvested local hardwood. The renewable energy and water systems publicly exhibit a high quality of life while demonstrating energy independence with a substantial reduction in global pollution.

The project was developed in partnership with the Elizabeth River Project (ERP), a non-profit environmental group whose mission is to clean up the Elizabeth River, one of the most contaminated estuaries of the Chesapeake Bay. The Learning Barge moves between four major cities while monitoring and teaching about ongoing sediment remediation, pollution prevention and restoration projects. 6,000 students and adults visited the Barge in the first six months of educational operations and over 19,000 visitors are projected during the first year 2009-10. Because of its high visibility moving on the River between the dense urban areas of Norfolk, Portsmouth, Hampton and Chesapeake, Virginia, it is seen by thousands of passersby each day.

Now the Learning Barge is owned and operated by ERP, in cooperation with several partners, including the Norfolk, Portsmouth and Chesapeake public school districts, Hampton Roads Alliance for Environmental Education, NOAA and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. The objective was to create a technically sound, educationally informative, economically feasible and innovative implementation of science and technology for sustainability, which proved that an environmental education field station built using rigorous environmental criteria would have a positive impact on the students, the community, and in the broadest sense, the planet.

Learning Barge site map. Click on sites listed below for more information. Sites will open in new window.

1. Elizabeth River Project offices
2. Learning Barge construction site
3. Money Point ERP Revitalization
4. ERP Paradise Creek Park project
5. Scuffletown Creek ERP wetlands site remediation
6. Nauticus
7. Scott's Creek remediation site
8. Grandy Village Learning Center

In January 2006, Professor Phoebe Crisman brought the Learning Barge project to her studio at the University of Virginia School of Architecture, where the project was designed and built by a multi-disciplinary team of architecture, engineering and landscape architecture students. The Learning Barge was christened and public environmental education programs began in September 2009. For more information on the current status of this multi-semester research/design/build initiative, see the UVa Learning Barge website by selecting the image to the right:

Click the Swimmable - Fishable image to the right to go to the Elizabeth River Project website where you can get more information about the barge, fieldtrips and visits.