Courtesy of Gulf State Park.
The Gulf State Park Interpretive Center.
A set of winding, metal stairs lead to a platform delicately perched among the pine trees at the Gulf Coast Eco Center in Gulf Shores, Alabama. From here, harness-clad kids wait their turn to step out onto the high ropes course, both nervous and excited to maneuver their way across swinging bridges, scramble over interwoven rope nets, balance on log steps, and crawl through tunnels hanging in the trees. To them, the experience promises an exhilarating adventure, but the Eco Center staff and its designers believe that they’ll leave with something more: a new perspective on the natural environments of the Gulf South.
“The ropes course lets us teach nature and ecology from up high,” said Travis Langen, the Executive Director of the Gulf Coast Center for Ecotourism and Sustainability (GCCES), the nonprofit behind the Eco Center. The course is just one part of GCCES’s coordinated vision for a “laboratory” of ecological education and sustainable tourism.
The Eco Center, which opened in April 2025, acts as something of an extension of sustainability projects at the neighboring Gulf State Park—which altogether re-envision Gulf Shores’s unique place on the precipice of the environmental crisis as an opportunity for educational experiences and sustainable infrastructure.
All of these multi-million-dollar sites were made possible by RESTORE Act grants, allocated from penalties resulting from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and designated for ecosystem restoration and economic recovery along the Gulf Coast. Because of these funds, a place once devastated by one of the biggest environmental disasters in modern history is now emerging as a leader in the world of ecotourism.
Gulf Coast Eco Center
Built on land owned by the City of Gulf Shores, the Gulf Coast Eco Center is wedged between Gulf Shores High School and Gulf State Park.
The twelve acre, biophilic, open-air campus—designed in a collaboration by Alabama firms ArchitectureWorks, WATERSHED, and Thompson Engineering—incorporates organic gardens, open-air classrooms, a making center, a bicycle hub, and more.
“We teach fruit and vegetable classes to get kids to eat new things,” said Langen, who leads the educational curriculums at the heart of the Center’s mission, developed as part of Jean-Michel Cousteau’s national Ambassadors of the Environment Programs. “We can pickles, dye t-shirts using a red dye from the cochineal insect that lives in cacti, have paper-making and candle-making [classes], and create beeswax wraps. It’s like a modern-day home ec class.”
On a tour of the complex, Langen emphasized how much of the natural area was conserved during construction of the Center’s campus. “We really wanted to feel integrated into nature, so we preserved a lot of the habitat space,” he noted, pointing to native trees that were saved, despite making construction more difficult.
The buildings themselves are designed to be responsive to the surrounding environment itself, with windows situated to frame sweeping views; as well as deep porches, dog trots, and thermal chimneys allowing for comfort indoors with minimal need for air conditioners or heating units. Rainwater is captured and treated onsite and used to flush toilets. Because of these adaptations and others, the Eco Center’s designers are pursuing Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification, as well as a FORTIFIED Commercial Silver certification—which recognizes constructions for their performance in resilience and sustainability.
Gulf State Park—The Lodge
Leading the sustainable tourism movement not only in Gulf Shores, but globally, is Gulf State Park and its Lodge—opened in 2018 and designed by Rabun Architects, WATERSHED, and Lake Flato Architects. Since then, the lodge has been recognized with certification from LEED, and has attained the first SITES (rating sustainable landscapes) and FORTIFIED certifications of a hospitality project in the world.
Courtesy of Gulf State Park
The Lodge at Gulf State Park
The building itself is a prime example of sustainable design, utilizing Gulf breezes for natural ventilation, conserving energy by cutting off air conditioning units when balcony doors are left open, and recycling condensation to replace the water in the pool. Outdoors, the landscaping was thoughtfully implemented as an effort to restore dune habitats.
“The Lodge is one of the most environmentally friendly in the world,” said Chandra Wright, Director of Environmental & Educational Outreach at Gulf State Park. “It’s built into the dune ecosystem, and a fortified building with respect to storms.”
Courtesy of Gulf State Park.
The lobby at the Lodge at Gulf State Park.
Wright is also a team leader for the Alabama Coastal Foundation’s Share the Beach sea turtle nesting program, which helps locate and protect sea turtle nests and educates the public on ways to mitigate human-related impacts to their populations. One of the biggest challenges is protecting hatchlings from the effects of artificial light pollution, which can cause them to travel towards buildings and vehicles instead of the moon’s reflection in the Gulf waters. The Lodge, as well as a growing number of eco-conscious buildings in Gulf Shores, shields its beachside lights and uses warmer lighting, which the turtles can’t see.
Gulf State Park—Learning Campus
Courtesy of Gulf State Park.
The Gulf State Park Learning Campus.
Across the sprawling state park, the 26,000-square-foot Learning Campus, also opened in 2018, further promotes ecotourism by offering immersive environmental learning opportunities for school groups, teachers, researchers, scouts, and nature enthusiasts. Its LEED Silver-certified facilities include an auditorium, classroom spaces, laboratories, Woodside Restaurant, and bunkhouses—all connected by boardwalks and screened porches. Designed by ArchitectureWorks using sustainable building practices, the campus was awarded the American Institute of Architects Alabama Design Honor Award in 2022.
Gulf State Park—Interpretive Center
Perhaps the most impressive building in Gulf State Park is the LEED Platinum-certified Interpretive Center, which holds the title of Alabama’s “Most Green Building.” Designed by ArchitectureWorks in collaboration with Hersick + Webster and Sasaki under the rigorous standards of the Living Building Challenge, the Interpretive Center follows the certification program’s philosophy of being as efficient as a flower, striving to meet the seven performance areas known as Petals. It currently meets six—Place, Water, Energy, Materials, Equity, and Beauty—and is close to the seventh—Health & Happiness.
“Prior to 2004, this was a parking lot,” said Corey Bryan, Gulf State Park Learning Center’s Environmental, Sustainability, and Activities Manager, who explained the Interpretive Center’s path to becoming Petal-certified. “After Hurricane Ivan destroyed the parking lot, we set aside two acres for dunes and land for the Interpretive Center. We removed 15,000 square feet of asphalt to create a better environment and more opportunity to restore the dune system.”
Opened in 2018, the Interpretive Center was built 225 feet back from the coast so a secondary dune system could be established with the help of discarded Christmas trees placed along the beach. The Center itself, which includes an interpretive exhibit porch that describes the state park’s nine different ecosystems, also has a kids’ hydrology maze for hands-on learning to show how sand helps slow erosion.
Courtesy of Gulf State Park.
The Gulf State Park Interpretive Center.
Everything here serves a purpose, such as attractive linked chains replacing pipes to guide rainwater down into a basin that leads to an 11,000-gallon cistern. Bryan described how upwards of 200,000 gallons of water are collected each year, then sent through six different filters before the clean water comes out in fountains, sinks, and the hydrology play tank. Composting toilets use a foam flush, and the contaminated water, or leachate, enters a tank underneath, where it converts into a form of fertilizer over the course of several years.
The sun powers the entire building, with solar panels gathering 105 percent of the energy needed. The extra power is saved in batteries and sent back to the local power grid. And all building materials were sourced from within a 500-mile radius, a difficult task considering the entire southern side is Gulf waters.
Courtesy of Gulf State Park
Gulf State Park Interpretive Center
“We also can’t have anything on the red list that has chemicals, like PVC pipe or creosote-treated wood,” said Bryan, noting that this is what caused them to miss their target on the seventh Petal of Health and Happiness. “We salvaged a lot of the wood and think some of the glue wasn’t one of the approved. There is very little allowed, and we’re right at the threshold. We’re hoping the next air quality test will fall within range, but it’s still really cool to get six of the seven.”
In addition to building greener, the State Park has eliminated single-use plastic products on the property, uses only biodegradable and recyclable materials, and encourages non-motorized travel through a free bike share program.
If you go:
Where to Stay: The Gulf State Park has a variety of overnight accommodations, including at the lodge, in cabins, or in cottages. You can also book a private beach house just outside the park with Harris Vacations—a nice option for those wanting to enjoy both the tranquility of Gulf State Park and the many activities in Gulf Shores.
Where to eat: At the Original Oyster House, you can make your own cocktail sauce and feast on three kinds of chargrilled oysters, all with a stunning view of the marsh. Or, make an evening out of it at Tee Off at the Wharf, a TopGolf Swing Suite, where you can compete in various virtual games while munching on wings, dips, and other shareables.
gulfcenter.org, lodgeatgulfstatepark.com, learningcampusgsp.com.
Disclaimer: This trip was partially funded by Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism, though the opinions of the writer are entirely her own and formed independently of this fact.
