A new 400-acre master-planned sustainable community is taking shape just south of Charlotte, SC with a new museum at its core. The Museum of Life and the Environment will contain details on human cultural history as well as natural history.
“The Museum’s core exhibits and programs will reveal how human choices affected economic and environmental sustainability in the past, and what impact they may have on the future.”
The land was originally owned by Thomas Spratt, one of the early Carolina settlers, who developed a strong relationship with the Catawba tribe and was known to them as “Kanawha.” His descendant Jane Spratt McColl donated the land to the Culture and Heritage Foundation as a site for the museum. The Foundation sees the development as a means to complement the museum’s mission and to fund long-term sustainability.
Kanawha is a mixed-use residential and commercial development that will be the first in the Carolinas to integrate sustainable technology, materials and practices. All residential homes will be EarthCraft-certified, and commercial buildings will be certified by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). All construction will take an environmentally friendly building approach, with buildings that consume less energy, preserve water quality, promote clean indoor air and minimize waste.
A major emphasis will be on landscaping and water quality. Plans concerning both pre- and post-construction water runoff have been fine tuned to create a series of natural retention ponds to recharge groundwater and protect the river. Native plants that do not require irrigation will be used.
