The Buck Creek Campus of the Walking Mountains will finally give a home to this innovative nonprofit organization founded in 1998 in the Vail Valley to promote relevant approach to teaching science and educating students of all ages about the ecology of the natural world. A LEED Platinum certification will be sought and every building system, material and design approach will be used as teaching tools to promote a paradigm shift in the local building community and a showcase for what is possible through sustainable design.

Examples of sustainable design solutions that will be used are; straw bale walls, high performance glazing and super insulated wall and roof systems, solar orientation, solar collection (passive, photovoltaic and solar hot water active systems), daylight harvesting, living roofs, renewable and minimally processed and locally obtained finishes and natural ventilation.

The Campus will be designed as a cluster of buildings and consist of a Discovery Hall (an interactive museum), a multi-purpose Field Studies Base Camp (available for lectures, gathering and as a dorm for overnight programs), a Meadow Learning Studio and Mountain Learning Studio stand alone classroom buildings and a Graduate Fellows Residence. The cluster plan will allow the individual buildings to nestle into a site that contains numerous wetlands and sensitive environments with the lightest footprint possible and will promote an indoor-outdoor relationship at each use.