Architect: Lord Aeck Sargent Planning & Design, Inc.

Location: Boone, NC

The  Conservatory for Biodiversity Education and Research, or CBEaR, is a new, highly sustainable, cutting-edge, multi-purpose facility featuring conservatories, greenhouses, research spaces, classrooms, and support spaces. Targeting Living Building Core and Energy Petal Certification, the project receives services from adjacent geothermal wells, photovoltaic panels, and wind turbines.

CBEaR will serve as the home for biological research but will also welcome visitors who can tour the tropical, desert, cold, and temperate conservatories, and then meet in the large classrooms which open out to the gardens.