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W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 31 A P R I L 1 9 , 2 0 2 1 F O C U S R E A L E S TAT E / C O N S T R U C T I O N / E N G I N E E R I N G "We'd propose a product, they would talk to the manufacturer and get con- firmation of its chemical composition," continues Routhier. "Sometimes there's a proprietary reason why a manufac- turer wouldn't want to share that, so we'd ask them to provide an affidavit that it doesn't have red-list ingredients." "We had hilarious encounters with the certification agency," says the project's lead architect, Jesse ompson of Kaplan ompson Architects in Portland. "We said, 'We don't know how to do this.' ey said, 'We don't either. Why do you think we call it a challenge?'" Before they're certified, the buildings have to operate for a year at full capacity to prove they fulfill the challenge. "It's easy to turn a dial on an energy simulation and say, 'Oh, look, we're sustainable,'" says ompson. "I think it's smarter to say, 'Let's measure reality.' Prove you did what you said you were going to do originally and, if you don't, you adjust things until it works." Case study College of the Atlantic's new Davis Center for Human Ecology houses sci- ence laboratories, flexible lecture halls, faculty offices, art and design studios and a teaching greenhouse. e two-story structure, enclosed by glass façades, is the first major construction since 1983, when enrollment was 150. Today, enroll- ment is 350. Space was tight and didn't accommodate the college's interdisci- plinary approach. "We've really grown," says Collins. "e old building served us well, but it also didn't do the things we needed it to do in terms of sustainability and bring- ing faculty from all disciplines together in a functional space. is building was thoughtfully and strategically designed to meet not only our current needs but our future needs." e $13 million center is the largest project of its type designed according to passive house prin- ciples built for the Northeast climate, says Timothy Lock, a management partner with Opal Architecture in Belfast. (His firm is now designing a slightly larger one for Colby College in Waterville, he adds.) e design approach included site selection, solar orientation, use of local and recycled materials, onsite renewable energy sources and a high-performance envelope and design. Beyond energy conservation, the design integrates carbon sequestration through high-density wood products for exterior cladding, interior finish and insulation, which is expected to radically reduce the overall carbon footprint in relation to similar buildings. e project incorporates "glue-lami- nated timbers," a category of an emerg- ing engineered wood product called "mass timber." e products are said to provide a lighter carbon footprint and greater flexibility than other structural materials. ey're far more renewable than heavy timbers that are cut as one piece from one large tree, explains Lock. Glue lamination assembles many small pieces of wood derived from saplings into a compressed product. e use of natural materials that sequester carbon was a priority. "One key way we could do that was using large-scale wood structures in place of steel," he adds. e center is also one of the largest buildings in the country to use wood fiber insulation and will serve as a case study for the product, which was imported from a German company called Gutex. (Opal's sister firm, GO Lab, is setting up a wood fiber insulation manufacturing plant in Madison.) Wood fiber insulation uses residu- als such as off-cuts and bark that's chipped and pressed. In this case, the insulation continuously wraps the outside of the building. Expansive stretches of windows, with views of the ocean, are triple- glazed in keeping with passive house standards. "Bird safe" glazing, optically clear to humans but opaque to birds, is expected to prevent bird strikes. "is is an institution that comes with its own set of performance requirements that are far beyond anything that's in any one sustainable certification criteria," says Lock. "I can't think of any project we've done that has put forward the same number of aggressive challenges simultane- ously — a large-scale building, all- wood, carbon sequestration, passive house level energy performance, bird- safe glass, and a transformative design for the client." e project is important to the col- lege's mission. "Sustainability is part of the institu- tion's DNA," says Collins. "We were founded to address the needs of the planet and of Mount Desert Island. It wasn't a surprise at all that the commu- nity came together and put sustainabil- ity on top of the list of commitments around this building." Laurie Schreiber, Mainebiz senior writer, can be reached at lschreiber @ mainebiz.biz P H O T O S / T I M G R E E N WAY The new dormitory and dining commons at the Ecology School, constructed with standards set by the Living Building Challenge.

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