Seamlessly Integrating Youth Education and Hands-On Learning
View MoreLessLone Oaks Farm, spanning 1,200 acres of scenic West Tennessee, uniquely blends hospitality, agriculture, and youth education. The STEM Center continues the farm’s design philosophy with a simple kit of parts, agrarian influences, and outdoor circulation, offering a high-end educational experience for area youth and 4-H campers. Adjacent to gardens, meadows, orchards, and wetlands, the facility includes flexible classrooms that open to the outdoors for hands-on agricultural learning, covering aquaponics, livestock, plants, crops, and labs. It also features a kitchen and cafeteria for food service and culinary education. The center provides a crucial resource for educators and demonstrates that STEM careers extend beyond cubicles and lab coats, emphasizing the importance of STEM in public lands, healthy habitats, and progressive agriculture. The design facilitates immersive, hands-on learning experiences both indoors and outdoors.
- Completed 2024
- Architect
- Middleton, TN
- 1200 acre site, 10,336 SF
Client
- University of Tennessee, Lone Oaks Farm
Eldo Team
- David Dowell
- Brock Traffas
- Sean Slattery
Collaborator
* Engineering: Allen & Hoshall
- Landscape Architect: WMWA Landscape Architects, Nelson Byrd Woltz (NBW)
- Contractor: MSB Construction, LLC
Photography
- Tim Hursley