Harriet Tubman UGRR Visitor Center Tour

Join Bmore NOMA as we caravan on a day trip to the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor's Center & State Park! Leading us on a tour of the facility will be Chris Elcock, AIA - Associate Principal of GWWO Architects and Project Manager for the Tubman Visitor Center. The trip is welcome to all colleagues, friends, and family!

We will offer coach bus transportation and a box lunch to attendees. We will set out at 9 am from Morgan State University, where all shuttle passengers can park and ride, as needed. We will spend the approximate hours of 12 noon until 4:30pm at the Tubman Visitor Center and the nearby Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge -- Dorchester County is home to more than 250 species of birds!

Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park is a 480-acre (190 ha) National Park Service unit in the U.S. state of Maryland. It commemorates the life of former slave Harriet Tubman, who became an activist in the Underground Railroad prior to the American Civil War. The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument was created by President Barack Obama under the Antiquities Act on March 25, 2013. The portion of the monument administered by the National Park Service was later designated a National Historical Park in 2014, and the remainder is managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service as part of Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge.

Transportation: A 55 seat coach bus will be provided. The park and ride meeting point will be at Morgan State University CBEIS building. Lot CE, in front of the building, is reserved from 8am-8pm for us.

Schedule:

• 9am – Leave the park and ride site

• 12 pm - Arrive on site

• 2pm - Lunch will be provided (by Black Sauce)

• 4pm – Depart

• 7pm – Return to Park and ride site

Ticket Prices:

• NOMA Member - $45.00

• Non-Member - $55.00

Registration Deadline: June 7th

AIA CEU credits pending:

Course Description - The design of visitor centers requires study of several factors. The subject matter being interpreted, the environment, local context, the mission of the facility (present and future) and most of all, the visitor experience. This event will showcase how these elements were balanced to create the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center. How can specific stories about the Underground Railroad and the lessons learned form a national figure inform the architecture to create a building and state park. How do we prioritize those issues to the visitor while answering other regulatory requirements like LEED and sea-level rise.

Learning Objectives :

1. Understand the requirements for visitor arrival, decompression, orientation, information and transformation.

2. Explore strategies to balance the size of a space that needs to be large enough for busloads but small enough for a family in a car.

3. Manage Federal and State regulatory requirements- The park is both a National park service site and a Maryland Park Service site.

4. Explore strategies to place buildings on a site that is under threat from sea-level rise and identify strategies that can be used to mitigate loss.