Sunriver Nature Center & Observatory begins major expansion

Published 5:00 am Tuesday, April 20, 2021

After five years of planning and fundraising, a $5 million expansion of the Sunriver Nature Center & Observatory is underway.

Crews broke ground last week on the first phase of the expansion — doubling the size of the observatory. Construction is expected to last until July, when visitors will be welcomed into the larger space with six new telescopes.

The second phase of the nature center expansion is scheduled to start in 2023. It will feature a 7,700-square-foot Discovery Center that will include a planetarium theater with a full projection system and seating for up to 94 visitors. The center will also build an 1,800-square-foot pavilion on the back of Lake Aspen.

Construction was delayed a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so the nature center staff and Sunriver community are happy to see the expansion finally taking place, said Abby Rowland, executive director of the nature center and observatory.

“It’s really nice to see actual physical work being done to re-excite our community about what’s to come,” Rowland said.

The expansion was able to start this year due to private donations and grants totaling $2.5 million. The nature center and observatory are still fundraising for the remaining $2.5 million.

“We are halfway there,” Rowland said. “We feel really good about that for a little organization.”

Fundraising efforts took a step forward last year when the project was awarded a $250,000 grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, an organization that supports arts and culture in the Northwest. The trust awarded the money specifically for the observatory construction.

The NASA-affiliated observatory draws about 400 people on busy nights. Doubling the capacity will allow people to have shorter waits to use the telescopes and speak with staff, said Bob Grossfeld, observatory manager.

The extra space will also help accommodate more people during the pandemic, Grossfeld said.

“We will be able to spread people out quite a bit more since we are basically doubling the capacity of the facility,” he said.

The observatory will remain open during the construction. Once the work is finished, the larger space will allow for more school groups and university research projects, Grossfeld said.

“This is going to be a huge asset for our educational K-12 programming,” Grossfeld said. “We are excited about the educational aspect to get school groups in there.”

When the nature center and observatory was built in 1984, it was designed to handle 5,000 to 10,000 visitors each year. Since then, the number of visitors each year has increased to about 50,000.

Rowland said it is time for the nature center and observatory to meet the demand of visitors. Other nearby destinations such as the Sunriver Resort and Village at Sunriver have already gone through similar expansions, Rowland said.

“We are kind of behind on all of it,” Rowland said. “Our little campus was only designed to hold maybe 5,000 to 10,000 people a year and we see five to six times that.”

Rowland is looking forward to the major upgrades and additions. All the new offerings will allow the nature center to host more permanent exhibits, wildlife and presentations.

“Having the additional space will be great from that perspective,” Rowland said. “Not only as a community resource, but for us to be able to offer more programs with a larger space.”