From the Sales Staff

Last week Mike Campbell and I had the pleasure of touring the Efroymson Conservation Center, home of The Nature Conservancy in Indiana. In April the organization held their opening gala and we played host to some of their out of town guests in for the celebration. Since our Indianapolis green hotel is a member of some of the same treehugger groups as The Nature Conservancy, it was a natural (no pun intended) for us to partner up and provide their guests some rooms at our property.

The Efroymson Conservation Center is located on East Ohio Street, just a quick walk from our downtown Indianapolis historic hotel. Mike and I were greeted by some beautiful landscaping at the back and Indiana limestone, yellow poplar, red oak, shagbark hickory and maple flooring and paneling in the entry way.  Our guide toured us through two levels, a basement and roof pointing out neat features along the way.

Some of my favorite green features: all lights are on motion sensors, suspended flooring with interchangeable tiles with vents for cool air and of course the green roofs!  From Ohio Street you can see the intensive green roof which has native Indiana plants and a deeper soil base.  The building rooftop has an extensive green roof with a shallow soil base and low-lying plants.  The bees seem to love it up there and it has a great view of the Maxwell apartments and of downtown! 
In the basement they have a wall of windows looking out onto a Live Wall.  This wall consists of many cement blocks which are staggered and act as planters.  Soil is planted in each one and four different cliff-dwelling plants are planted in the soil.  It's pretty amazing and I really need to find a way to build my own...in the office...

As downtown Indy hotels and other businesses continue their green efforts, I hope they will look to new construction projects like that of Efroymson Conservation Center for ideas and self-sufficiency.  They won an award, you know!