WRT is working with The Partnership for the Delaware Estuary and John Bartram Association to design and construct a freshwater mussel hatchery and environmental education center within the historic Bartram’s Garden. The new 21,000sf center will produce 500,000 mussels per year, including endangered species to repopulate and help clean the estuary's streams and rivers. The Environmental Education Center will provide spaces to support the Garden's extensive educational, ecological, and community-based programs for surrounding communities to enjoy. The Environmental Education Center offers classrooms, educational exhibit spaces, supporting offices, and research space, and is served by sustainable systems including a geothermal well field.
Aside from mussel-rearing facilities, the Hatchery includes additional research and office space. Exterior spaces include outdoor classrooms, support space for hatchery education, and functioning and educational green infrastructure for stormwater demonstrations. The center supports the adjacent Sankofa community farm with green houses, teaching kitchen, and exterior community table. The project is scheduled to be constructed in 2025.
