Burlington Waterfront ECHO with the lake
— — a glass building turned toward the water that made it.
Not only on a wall.
“The ECHO Leahy Center stands at the foot of College Street, glass and weathered metal turned outward to Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks beyond. Tanks of native fish line the lower galleries; upstairs, the windows take the lake in long horizontal slabs. The waterfront path runs past the door in both directions, the ferry dock to the north, the boathouse to the south, and the long blue line of the lake doing the work the building came to study. from the studio
Burlington Waterfront ECHO with the lake, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain sits on the Burlington waterfront at the foot of College Street, on the site of the old Moran Plant and the city's working harbour. The building opened in 2003 as an aquarium and science centre devoted entirely to the natural and human history of the Lake Champlain basin, a watershed that drains roughly 8,200 square miles across Vermont, New York, and Quebec. It is a Smithsonian Affiliate and is named for Senator Patrick Leahy, who championed federal investment in the lake.
Lake Champlain runs about 120 miles north to south and reaches a depth of around 400 feet between Burlington and the Adirondack shore. ECHO's tanks hold the species that live in it, from lake sturgeon to brook trout, with interpretive panels on the basin's invasive species, ice cover, and the long story of stewardship led by the Lake Champlain Basin Program. The building's lakeside windows frame the same water the tanks describe, so the view and the exhibit answer each other across the gallery floor.
ECHO is open daily, usually from late morning to late afternoon, with timed admission on busy summer days; rates are set per adult and per child, with members and Vermont EBT visitors at reduced prices. The Burlington Bike Path runs past the front door, connecting Oakledge Park to the south with the Causeway out into Lake Champlain to the north. The Lake Champlain Ferries terminal sits a short walk north along the waterfront, and the Spirit of Ethan Allen sightseeing boat docks at the boathouse just south of the building.