East Zion Greenhouse Café • Zion National Park, Utah

Owner/Client: Applecross Cafe, LLC

AOR: Place Collaborative

Design Architect: Overland Partners

Size: 6,000 SF

Services: Architecture, Planning

Completion Year: 2026

Certifications: Living Building Challenge Pursuant

The East Zion Greenhouse Café is a unique part of the larger Discovery Center campus—an innovative, privately owned facility that reimagines the farm-to-fork experience. Designed as a greenhouse restaurant, the café integrates aquaculture and hydroponics directly into the dining environment. An aquaponic planter system winds through the space, growing produce in water while supporting fish farming, all managed from a dedicated back-of-house pump room. The concept builds on a working prototype developed and refined by the owner over time.

Large greenhouse skylights fill the space with soft, diffuse daylight, while nighttime shading helps preserve the area’s Dark Sky quality—essential in this sensitive desert landscape. The building’s material palette is rooted in place: stone cladding is quarried just 1.2 miles away, and timber is milled less than a mile to the north. Inspired by the principles of the Living Building Challenge, the café prioritizes natural materials and Declare-labeled products, including sustainably sourced lighting and timber framing.

Renderings courtesy Overland Partners