The Hickory Run State Park Visitor Center and Office serves as the main point of contact for anyone exploring Hickory Run and Lehigh Gorge State Parks.
Visitors can interact with park staff, check in to the Hickory Run State Park campground, and attend educational programs.
The building, which opened in 2020, complements the park character by reflecting the park’s rustic, CCC-era origins.
The 2,400-square-foot, self-guided exhibit space featuring the parks’ natural and cultural histories is a must see.
The building is Silver LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified and is DCNR’s 17th LEED building with many sustainable strategies and techniques that focus on energy efficiency, resource conservation, and indoor environmental quality. Some of these features include:
- Lobby timber trusses and wood paneling made from reclaimed timber and siding from an old park carpenters shed.
- High-performance geothermal heating and cooling.
- Natural daylighting and controls for automated user-demand lighting.
- Low-flow plumbing fixtures with automated plumbing controls.
- A water bottle filling station
- Low- and no-VOC materials with high recycled content and regionally sourced materials, and low polluting interior products and construction processes.
- Building materials using natural (or natural-like) materials, such as wood (fiber-cement) and stone.
- Rain gardens for onsite stormwater collection and infiltration.
- Electric vehicle charging stations.
- Outdoor shielded light fixtures to promote darks skies.