New Buildings and Amenities

The Master Plan for development of the Nature Park includes these buildings and amenities. Click on any of the headings for more information about each project.

Outdoor amphitheater

The outdoor amphitheater has 100 seats made of cut limestone blocks and is located in a natural depression near the Manning Environmental Field Station..

Welcome Center

The Welcome Center serves as a trailhead building for groups visiting the park, where they can receive orientation to the park and plan their activities. The building also provides office space for the Park Ranger.

Manning Environmental Field Station

An on-site lab and teaching space facilitiates the teaching of geoscience and biology classes on topics such as environmental science, environmental biology, and ecology. Designed for 20 to 24 students, the building includes three separate greenhouses and several research laboratories in addition to a multipurpose teaching facility. Adjacent to this building are experimental gardens and plantings as well as designated plots for careful monitoring. This building is available for summer research, summer camps, and outdoor education for community school groups.

Janet Prindle Ethics Institute

The Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics was dedicated in October 2007.  Built on an artificial hill of overburden spoils from the quarrying operation above the northeaster side of the quarry wall, the Prindle Institute was constructed to minimize the impact on the site’s natural environment and use of natural resources while creating a stunning experiential learning environment.  This, in addition to the green design, earned the Prindle Institute Indiana’s first LEED Gold rating from the U.S. Green Building Council.  The entrance to the Institute is located on County Road 225 South adjacent to Putnam County Emergency Services training facility and Highway Department’s service facility. 

Purpose: Instilling values and developing character have long been a part of a DePauw education. In our early years, DePauw's presidents taught a course in "moral philosopy" that was required of all seniors. DePauw guides its students to "an intentional commitment to an examination of values, a pursuit of heightened aptitidude in critical thinking, and the establishment of a sufficiently broad base of general learning to constitute a foundation for living with meaning as well as making a living." The aim of the Ethics Institute, in its broadest terms, is to help DePauw do a better job than it already does in living up to this goal.

Activities: The Institute seeks to foster sophisticated, thoughtful and interdisciplinary reflection on moral issues including questions of justice and policy, character, duty, and responsibility. Its central objective is enriching the quality of moral discussion that goes on in the DePauw community of students and faculty members. This will entail sponsoring seminars for students and faculty members as well as hosting conferences and lectures on topics of moral concern. Although the first priority of the Institute is fostering the teaching and discussion of ethics on campus, ongoing commitment to effective teaching will be greatly helped by support for faculty and student research on questions of ethics as well as involvement of alumni. We will also provide the resources and support to be more intentional in organizaing speakers, seminars, workshops, retreats and conferences that contribute to a heightened ethical awareness and in organizing activities on ethical issues for students, staff, faculty members, and visitors. We will attract both long-term and short-term visitors from around the country to join in this endeavor to improve the ethical considerations in undergraduate education and to serve as resources for our faculty members and students.

The Institute provides a place:

  • where faculty members from DePauw and from other colleges and universities can gather to reflect, discuss and work on teaching and scholarly projects;
  • where resources on ethical issues are available for students and faculty members;
  • where class meetings or occasional class presentations might be held;
  • where students and faculty members might find speakers, seminars, workshops, retreats and conferences of interest;
  • and where faculty members and students can find the time and concentration to reflect deeply on these issues.

Reflection Center

The James and Sue Bartlett Reflection Center opened in October 2008 and is scheduled for dedication during April of 2009. The Center provides a place for individual and group reflections in a quiet, natural setting. The building is located just south-west of the Prindle Institute and is connected by a walkway and the "Babbling Brook" water feature. The building's green design and construction is also intended to meet LEED certification requirements from the U.S. Green Building Council.

Utilities

A two-inch water line for city water has been installed from Walnut Street to the parking lot. This is adequate for the two smaller buildings and the drinking fountains in the parking lot and camping areas. Electrical power is supplied by PSI/Cinergy along a path which enters the Park from the county road near the Highway Department facility. Wastewater treatment onsite which would meet stringent requirements of health codes and environmental management did not prove possible; hence we have installed a forced sewer main from the Park to Walnut Street and a gravity flow system north of Walnut Street which connects to the city wastewater treatment plant. Data services are provided as wireless internet access and phones at the buildings. New utility services, such as a six-inch water main along the county road from the east will be required to support facilities and programs at the Ethics Institute. Once this line is installed, the sewer systems of the Ethics Institute will be connected to the wastewater treatment line of the rest of the Park while the 6-inch water line will be connected to provide hydrant services near the other two buildings.