New Discovery Center gets visitors back to nature

For years, the Chattahoochee Nature Center has connected people with their environment. Now the nature center's new state-of-the-art Discovery Center is extending the connection to the river that sustains all of metropolitan Atlanta — the Chattahoochee itself.

The highly anticipated $9.7 million Discovery Center and Pavilion opened in June  after five years of fund-raising and campaigning by the who’s who of local leaders.

“It’s been a long time coming, but we’re finally here,” campaign chair Christopher Sawyer said.

The result is a place where visitors can learn about the profound relationship between humans and the river.

The Discovery Center sits perched on a hillside overlooking the pavilion, a pond, garden terraces and an eagle aviary on the 127-acre Chattahoochee Nature Center campus.

The two-level, 10,000-square-foot center, designed by Lord, Aeck & Sargent, reflects an environmentally focused design. The building, made partially with recycled materials, boasts a rooftop terrace garden.

Discovery Center visitors can learn about the Chattahoochee’s river, forest and wetland habitats through activities and exhibits, some of which feature live animals.

Children can swap artifacts they've collected  at a trading desk. When they bring in a pinecone, pretty rock, interesting bark, antler, acorn or other natural object, they can accrue points they can use to acquire other interesting objects, such as seashells, a fossil, a shark tooth, a mineral or a patch of moss.

The junior traders can earn more points by learning more about their objects, creating artwork, or writing stories, poems or journals. The more they get to know about their objects, the better the trade, said naturalist Lindsey Norris.

“It’s all about getting people to be more aware of their environment,” she said.

Chattahoochee Nature Center Native Animals Discovery Center River Floor Interactive Chattahoochee River children education educational hands on interpretive center