The Nature Center serves as an educational and interpretive nature center in which visitors can cultivate their knowledge of the park’s diverse ecosystems. At the heart of the building is a 53-feet long living stream, which reproduces the riparian habitats found within the park, and other interactive exhibits encouraging engagement by visitors with the natural world around them.

The primary challenge faced by the design team was how to place a building in a unique and fragile natural setting. The building was carefully placed to stay out of the boundaries of the Darby Watershed Accord, which governs development adjacent to the Darby watershed. It employs the principles of climate-responsive design, including proper orientation, natural ventilation, a highly-insulated building envelope, and the use of geothermal ground-source heat pumps. A green roof planted with native vegetation integrates the building into the landscapes, and because of this, killdeer and other native birds have been observed nesting on the roof. Stormwater runoff from both building and site are channeled into a series of bioswales and wetlands planted with native species.

Battelle Darby Creek is the largest Metro Park with more than 7,000 acres of prairies, fields and forests, and more than 20 miles of riparian forest along the Big and Little Darby Creeks. The Darby creeks are noted nationally for their tremendous diversity and abundance of both aquatic and terrestrial plants and animals.

Designated state and national scenic rivers, the creeks are home to around 100 species of fish, five of which are endangered in Ohio. Forty-four species of freshwater mussels live in these waters, eight of which are on the Ohio endangered list.

Metro Parks has restored about 500 acres of wetlands, 500 acres of wet prairies and more than 500 acres of lush flowering prairies using only seeds native to the Darby Plains. The entrance road to the Indian Ridge Picnic Area is a great place to enjoy the splendor of such beauties as purple coneflower, royal catchfly, prairie dock, big bluestem and other wildflowers and grasses.

The park features more than 18 miles of trails and several scenic areas for picnicking.