The new 2,500 square foot $1.4 mil­lion warm­ing shel­ter at Swal­low Cliff Woods for the For­est Pre­serve Dis­trict of Cook Coun­ty pro­vides much-need­ed ser­vices for this pop­u­lar park in the For­est Pre­serve sys­tem. Swal­low Cliff Woods is renowned for its tobog­gan run and is fre­quent­ed by users from the Chicagoland area through­out the year as a fit­ness and recre­ation destination.

In addi­tion to the design of the warm­ing shel­ter struc­ture, a Mas­ter Plan was devel­oped for the park to address the goals of pro­mot­ing fit­ness and new recre­ation­al activ­i­ties in bal­ance with the District’s ongo­ing mis­sion of land man­age­ment and stew­ard­ship. With assis­tance from Con­ser­va­tion Design Forum, the Mas­ter Plan pre­pared by Ross Bar­ney Archi­tects includ­ed strate­gies to edu­cate the pub­lic about this eco­log­i­cal­ly unique and sen­si­tive area.

The project was orig­i­nal­ly con­ceived as a net-zero ener­gy build­ing. With a small enclosed area and through the use of super insu­la­tion and low‑E glaz­ing, the ini­tial pro­pos­al was to heat the facil­i­ty exclu­sive­ly with wood reclaimed from the District’s ongo­ing pro­gram of ash tree removal.

Elec­tri­cal demands for the facil­i­ty are met through the use of roof-mount­ed pho­to­volta­ic pan­els. An inten­sive veg­e­ta­tive roof, water-effi­cient land­scap­ing and low-flow plumb­ing fix­tures have been imple­ment­ed for the con­ser­va­tion of water. Local­ly reclaimed white oak was used for the exte­ri­or siding.

Client: For­est Pre­serve Dis­trict of Cook Coun­ty
Pro­gram: New com­fort sta­tion and com­mu­ni­ty cen­ter
Size: 2,500 SF
Cost: $1.4 million

Col­lab­o­ra­tive Part­ners:
Con­ser­va­tion Design Forum 
Faith­ful Gould