[UVa News Services, by Jane Ford]

The Learning Barge, the world's first floating wetland classroom, will be christened Sept. 14 at 11 a.m. at the High Street Ferry Landing in downtown Portsmouth.

The 120-foot barge – a joint project of the University of Virginia, which designed and built it, and the non-profit Elizabeth River Project, which will operate it – will traverse the Elizabeth River to teach all ages how to make the Elizabeth River "swimmable and fishable" by 2020, the new goal of the Elizabeth River Project.

The design by U.Va.'s School of Architecture has won a series of national awards. A live wetland on a steel barge symbolizes this community's commitment to reclaim the Elizabeth River as not only a major port, but also a healthy ecosystem. Currently the river is one of the most polluted on the Chesapeake Bay.

Speakers at the christening will include U.Va. President John T. Casteen III; retired U. S. Army Corps of Engineers Col. Joseph J. Thomas, president of the Elizabeth River Project's Board of Directors; and Paul D. Koonce, chief executive officer of Dominion Virginia Power.

Dominion Virginia Power will announce a lead gift of $375,000 toward the $1.3 million total cost of the custom-designed barge and two years of educational programming. The Lowe's store in Charlottesville worked closely with The Elizabeth River Project to secure materials, and the Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation funded an enclosed, on-board classroom laboratory with a gift of $125,000, while the Virginia Environmental Endowment funded initial project research. With these gifts, initial budget needs are met for The Elizabeth River Project to begin student field trips to the barge later in September, although fundraising continues to help schools pay for transportation and other ongoing needs.

"The Learning Barge is our most powerful education tool yet for enlisting students and citizens to restore our home river," Marjorie Mayfield Jackson, executive director of the Elizabeth River Project, said.

Often described as an initiative "by students for students," the Learning Barge not only was designed by U.Va., but the classroom and "green" power systems were also constructed by U.Va. students over the last three years – winning them a $75,000 cash award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in a 2007 sustainability competition.

Phoebe Crisman, the U.Va. associate professor of architecture who led the interdisciplinary team of students and community partners to design and fabricate the Learning Barge, was awarded the Education Honor Award of the American Institute of Architects in 2008. The U.Va. School of Architecture collaborated with the University's School of Engineering and Applied Science to power the Learning Barge solely by sun and wind, just one of its design elements geared to foster environmental responsibility.

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