PHILADELPHIA Philadelphia first "green building," the Cusano Environmental Education Center in the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum, has opened.

The mission of the project is to demonstrate the importance of the environment to our quality of life. The building features extensive use of recycled materials and wood grown in sustainable, managed forests and an energy-efficient geo-thermal heating and cooling system. The architecture and the design of the site, including landscape, roads and paths, are closely integrated.

Susan Maxman & Partners, a Philadelphia architectural firm, designed the building. Susan Maxman is the head of the Board of Overseers of the Graduate School of Fine Arts at the University of Pennsylvania. Her partner, Muscoe Martin, is a lecturer in Penn Department of Architecture and was principal in charge of the project. He is a nationally known expert in the design of environmentally responsible buildings. Both Maxman and Muscoe received their master degrees in architecture from Penn.

The landscape architects on the project were Jose Almiana and Carol Franklin, principals at Andropogon Associates. Both are Penn graduates who lecture at the Graduate School of Fine Arts.

Because the John Heinz National Wildlife Reserve is located in Tinicum Marsh, protecting the fragile environment was an important component of the project. Special considerations had to be made such as designing a porous parking lot and wet meadow biofilters to reduce pollution that seeps into Darby Creek.

Donald Prowler, a lecturer in the Department of Architecture was a consultant on the project, providing energy consulting. Prowler has been teaching at Penn for more than 20 years.