"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." Elizabeth Barrett Browning's words were not inspired by a building, but still they sprang to mind as I toured the new Orange County Animal Services Center.

The 24,000-square-foot building at 1601 Eubanks Road in Chapel Hill will house the animal shelter, animal services administrative offices and animal control.

When Bob Marotto, animal services director, arrived from Minneapolis to start his new job in July of 2005, there was already a commitment by the county to build the center. Making it happen was one of Marotto's prime assignments. As the manager of Minneapolis' Animal Care and Control Program, he was involved in helping Minneapolis build a new animal center in 2003.

"Most shelters are woefully inadequate, and people work in circumstances that don't facilitate the work they do in sheltering animals, ensuring the health of animals and ultimately placing or returning animals," Marotto said. "This was a tremendous opportunity to participate in a process that produces an environment that meets the needs of the staff that actually does the work and the community that needs the work done."

Sarah Fallin, animal services program coordinator, had received a $10,000 grant from the Park Foundation, which helped members of the design team visit state-of-the-art animal services facilities throughout the U.S. Everyone involved with the existing shelter off Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, administrative staff, and animal control officers had their say. County Commissioners Moses Carey Jr. and Barry Jacobs, and shelter volunteers also weighed in.

"Not all programs have vibrant volunteer programs," Marotto said. "We have more than 500 hours a month of volunteer time contributed to our operation."

Dixon Weinstein Friedlein Architects in Carrboro won the job designing the building. Ellen Weinstein said it was important to her that Orange County asked the community what it wanted.

"We held an open forum at the Orange County Southern Human Services building where the public could come and hear about plans and offer their thoughts about it," she said. "The public saw this building as a destination."

Jim Compton, project architect, said one thing very important to address was the darkness in many shelters. "We looked at bringing light in high," he said. "Our goal is to minimize the time the lights are turned on in the building. We also put in lighter finishes that reflect light. We concentrated on both, but I think that 90 percent of the animal areas have natural light."

I was there at 4 on a sunny afternoon. A few lights were on for workmen; otherwise natural light bathed the building.

Compton and Weinstein praised Orange County for endorsing the sustainable strategies in the building, such as the cisterns that catch rainwater for washing down the animal areas and toilets.

Marotto could write a book about the center but he pared it down to two things.

First, he said the building is a place people will want to come to, not just need to come to. "We have cat condos that have Plexiglas that enables the public to see the individual cats through parts of the lobby and corridor and similar presentations for dogs," he said. "It offers us the opportunity to increase the number of animals we adopt out and even more than doing that, to try and reduce the length of time that we need to hold animals before they are rehomed."

Second, the building is designed to maximize the health of the animals. This includes an air system that does not recirculate air coming out of cages, which will minimize cross-contamination, and a more appropriate area for isolating ill animals.

Jon Helton was a member of the shelter design committee and, along with his wife Martine, is a longtime shelter volunteer. "I wanted to be on the committee to hopefully steer them in the direction I thought they should go," he said. This included having a room dedicated to temperament testing, which he and his wife are very involved with. He also wanted to make sure that the design did not require volunteer dog walkers to potentially trip over other people when leaving the building with their canine charges.

"When I saw what they had in mind, I thought they really did their homework," Helton said. "When I went in to see the building, I was blown away. It is money well spent. As a taxpayer I am delighted."

After Marotto finished the grand tour, he left me with words as ardent as Browning's. "The shelter is oriented to present animals in all their richness, splendor and individuality."

Contact Deborah R. Meyer at eloise@nando.com or at 942-3252.