Anna George wore a hard hat and reflective vest Tuesday morning while she maneuvered around construction supplies and roamed the unfinished halls of the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute’s new facility.
This 14,000-square-foot building is a work in progress, but the safety gear will be shed later this fall when the doors to the state-of-the-art facility open, cementing the aquarium’s place as a conservation leader in the Southeast.
“It already feels like home,” said George, the institute’s director, as she gave a tour of the under-construction, $4.5 million building adjacent to the Baylor School campus.
The facility will house the aquarium’s conservation, education and collaboration initiatives, including its propagation programs that reintroduce freshwater fish species to the wild.
There are already several signs that this is not just another building. Freshwater conservation is the core of the institute’s purpose, and the new building exemplifies the environmentally friendly nature of that mission.