Set on an 18 acre wooded campus originally developed in the 1950s as a Boy Scout sleepaway camp, this project began with a request for a comprehensive 10 year master plan to guide renewal and growth. The client, Temple Israel, envisioned a campus that would support gathering, education, recreation, and stewardship across generations while honoring the site’s natural and cultural history.

Locus Architecture collaborated closely with the client and our landscape architecture partners to analyze the site’s glacial origins, topography, hydrology, vegetation, and circulation patterns. Early planning focused on how architecture and landscape could actively engage campers by making natural systems visible and experiential. Together, the team set ambitious performance goals centered on sustainability, resilience, restoration, and education, prioritizing passive energy strategies supported by efficient active systems.
The completed project delivers many of the master plan’s key elements, including major site improvements, three new buildings, and three pavilions. The 12,000 square foot Discovery Center serves as the campus’s primary gathering and learning space. Inspired by native shoreline plants, the building features operable, photovoltaic clad louvers that regulate daylight, solar gain, and energy production. Passive ventilation, geothermal heating and cooling, and thermal mass allow the building to maintain comfort with minimal energy use across seasons.
The Welcome Center anchors arrival and daily camp life, doubling as an informal performance space and introduction to the site’s visible water and landscape systems. Throughout the project, materials were thoughtfully sourced, including ash trees harvested on site and milled locally, giving new life to trees lost to disease.

Now in use for multiple seasons, the project has transformed the camp into a flexible, fossil fuel free environment that supports youth programming first while welcoming retreats, celebrations, and community gatherings for decades to come.