ALBANY COUNTY — The Pine Bush Discovery Center is reimagining itself after being allotted $5 million in funds.

“We’ve tried to make it a destination,” said Christopher Hawver, executive director of the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission.

The goal now is to make the 1987 commercial building and its grounds more emblematic of the preserve it represents.

Since the center opened in 2007, Hawver said he has heard at least 100 times — and staffers have heard the same thing — that people drive by because “it looks like it’s abandoned, because the grass is not mowed.”

While people who are environmentally aware recognize native prairie grass surrounds the building at 195 New Karner Road, Hawver said, “the average person is used to suburban green lawns being mowed, right?”

So the plan is to do more deliberate landscaping, still with native plants, to make the center more inviting.

The grounds will also be made more accessible “for those who have any kind of challenges, be it mobile, vision, hearing,” said Hawver.

“I wouldn’t say it’s unsafe now but it will be safer,” said Hawver, noting parking needs reconfiguration.

Hawver credits Senator Patricia Fahy, an Albany Democrat, for “taking the lead,” writing letters to Kathy Hochul, “urging the governor in the budget this year to include money for an upgrade to the grounds, the outdoor portion of our Discovery Center, to improve it for safety, accessibility, aesthetics, and sustainability.”

Senator Neil Breslin, now retired from the seat Fahy holds, had secured $500,000 for the project of which the commission was notified last August.

Based on feedback from visitors to the Discovery Center — ranging from school groups to families — education staff and visitor-services staff shared what they heard as preliminary plans were developed.

Last week, a kickoff meeting was held with members of the state’s Office of General Services Design and Construction team who will be overseeing the project.

That team designed and constructed the building at the Five Rivers Environmental Education Center, Hawver said. “So they like these projects. They’re excellent at it. They have the expertise,” he said.

“We’re just starting to get the ball rolling,” Hawver told The Enterprise on May 29. “I have to try and figure out now how do we access that $5 million.”

He hopes the project will be completed in two years and says the plan is to keep the Discovery Center open throughout construction. The project will be divided into phases but, said Hawver, “If we have all the money at once, we might be able to do the whole project at once."

He noted that the center had been built as a headquarters for the State Employee Federal Credit Union. In a property swap, Hawver explained, “The state of New York took ownership of it and provided SEFCU with property over by Patroon Creek.”

The question now, Hawver said, is: “How can we make the center look different and more inviting and less like an old commercial building? There’s a story there … There’s a story that you’ve repurposed the commercial building into an interpretive nature center.”

When the $5.5 million project is completed, Hawver said, “I think it will feel like a refreshed area that people feel really comfortable coming to and enjoying and experiencing.”

The initial concepts may change, Hawver stressed, as more detailed plans are finalized. For example, the current renderings show an all-glass entrance to the Discovery Center, which “looks really, really fantastic,” Hawver said.

“But, when it comes down to the nitty-gritty, we might not be able to do that because there’s so much solar heat gain and so much heat loss in the winter that our current HVAC system might not be able to handle it,” he said, adding that glass also raises the chance of bird strikes, which the center would like to reduce.

Currently, about 25,000 people annually visit the Discovery Center, which is staffed by 17 full-time and five part-time workers.

Meanwhile, about 200,000 visitors, including repeats, counted by motion detectors, use the preserve’s trails. The preserve has 12 trailheads, distributed across Guilderland, Colonie, and Albany, with 20 miles of trails.

During the pandemic, Hawver said, trail use surged.

“People flocked to the outdoors, people who had never been there,” he said. “You have families who never would have thought to go for a walk on a Saturday, but there was nothing else to do during COVID and you didn’t want to be in enclosed spaces. So they’ve experienced this stuff and now it’s something they really appreciate.”

In the 32 years that Hawver has been with the commission, 25 as its director, “It’s dramatic to see the change,” he said.

While the pine bush used to be seen as a wasteland it is now regarded as a treasure.

“We want to be able to connect with people and let them know what the pine bush is,” said Hawver. “Everybody connects to their local environment, and that’s what the pine bush is for a lot of people in different ways.

“A lot of people have come to have a great appreciation for this habitat. It’s a globally rare habitat, one of the best remaining inland pitch-pine, scrub-oak barrens left in the world. That’s it.

“We’ve got a number of rare or threatened or endangered species here like the Karner blue butterfly. We want people to appreciate and understand that. And that’s why we do all this habitat management, prescribed burning, invasive-species management.”

However, Hawver recognizes that some visitors just want to enjoy their morning coffee in solitude or walk their dog.

“A lot of people just come here because it’s open space and they want some place to go for respite,” he said.

Hawver hopes the reimagined Discovery Center will let more people do just what its name says — make discoveries.

Before the preserve had a center, Hawver said, “We did a fair amount of education programs with school groups.”

But the trips had to be short, since there were no facilities.

Now, kids come in busloads to have a literal field trip exploring in the field but then can come to the center for classroom space, lunch, and bathrooms.

“The kids come home and they tell their parents about this cool thing that happened on their field trip,” said Hawver.

The kids become the educators — and word spreads.