Hathaway Creative Center by Tom Frederick, V.P. of Operations at Wright-Ryan

Years after the last Hathaway shirts were made the rebirth of the Hathaway Center in Waterville is now complete thanks to the incredible efforts of our team members. On November 3rd, Maine General Health occupied the third floor of this incredible mill building on the Kennebec River after a sprint to the finish by upwards of 150 construction workers.

After a lengthy preconstruction period WR started cleaning out the old mill building and installing new windows in late winter of 2008. Structural renovations started in the spring. As summer loomed, work on the new wall framing had to stop due to changes which were being negotiated between the owner and Maine General. Numerous meetings were held to coordinate the drawings and determine the most cost effective way to execute the work. On August 5th the final drawings were received by WR but little did we know of the challenge to come.

Maine General, which is one of the largest hospital and medical service providers in the state, has had staff located in Waterville for years. They were occupying space in several different buildings throughout downtown Waterville. Unbeknownst to us, several of the leases for these properties expired on November 1, 2008. The owners of the Hathaway Mill approached WR and asked us to do the near impossible – take a shell of an old mill building that had no boiler plant, HVAC system, elevator, electrical system, walls, flooring, etc. and made it habitable in a little over 12 weeks!

Because of who we are and our dedication to our clients and because we saw that both the owner and Maine General were in a tough spot we accepted the challenge. We had a series of meetings with our subcontractors and developed an extremely aggressive set of milestones. We also met with City of Waterville officials and told them of our predicament. They cooperatively worked with us in developing a minimum set of life safety requirements in order to occupy the building. The last few weeks were a blur of activity as construction lasted up to 18 hours a day.  The end result was the exactly what the owner and Maine General needed. They were able to vacate their old leases and take up residence in their beautiful new space.

Special mention needs to go to our team members who helped execute this great challenge. They include Bruce Morgan and Dan Chipman, Superintendents, Chuck Hardes, Assistant Superintendent, Sam Perry, Gary Phillips, Al Messier, and Jody Belliveau, Field Carpenters, John Moynihan, Project Engineer, Mike White, Project Manager and Dave Onos, General Superintendent. Our hats go off to all these guys for a job well done.

Work will continue in the mill for several more months as WR continues to complete other areas of the building including 66 apartments on the 4th and 5th floors and new tenant space on the 1st and 2nd floor including new office space for TD Banknorth.

Learn How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

 Tour a LEED home, a platinum-certified Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design pilot home in Freeport. The energy efficient, resource friendly house is decorated by 12 local designers featuring environmentally friendly, occupant healthy products. Attend a lecture series to learn more about ways to go green by experts in the field of energy conservation and environmental choices and shop at the on-site green boutique. The event benefits Freeport Community Services. $15 for tour, and $5 per lecture. For directions and more information, call Kim Knowlen at 865-3985. House open Wednesdays through Sundays, 28 March -  19 April, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Center for Biomedical Research Construction Begins

The groundbreaking ceremony for the UNE Pickus Center for Biomedical Research was held on site at the Biddeford campus on October 7th. Wright-Ryan first submitted a proposal for this job during the fall of 2004. After a long pre-construction period, work has begun and the project has a proposed completion date of August 2008. The 21,000-square-foot, three-floor biomedical research facility will house teams of scientists and will ensure that UNE will attract and keep a top-flight faculty that is dedicated to medical education and advancing the practice of medicine. The facility will give students greater opportunities to experience research as part of their medical studies.  Governor Baldacci was on hand to speak about the importance of the research facility and the significance of the Center for continuing to make job opportunities for the state of Maine.

LEED for Homes Platinum- First in Northeast!

Cranberry Ridge, the LEED pilot home we completed in fall 2006, has received the highest rating allowable by the US Green Building Council.  The platinum rating was awarded to the project in April.  There are only two other projects in the country that have been awarded the platinum rating and this is quite an accomplishment.

LEED for Homes encourages buildings with small footprints and therefore gives additional points for little spaces.  We knew that Cranberry Ridge would lose points for having 3200 square feet.  Summary of points received:

Innovation and Design (9 points) We received points for having a third- party durability inspection and innovative, regional design. 

Location and Linkage (3 points) The project avoided an environmentally sensitive site.

Sustainable Sites (15 points) The landscaping was native and remained permeable.

Water Efficiency (10 points) The fixtures used in the home were of the highest efficiency.

Energy and Atmosphere (27 points) The project exceeded Energy Star requirements with third-party testing.

Materials and Resources (14 points) WR selected environmentally preferable products and used advanced framing techniques.

Indoor Environmental Quality (15 points) The project featured a high performance fireplace, a dedicated outdoor air system with heat recovery, sophisticated timing controls and a blower door test rating of 0.12.

Awareness and Education (2 points) A comprehensive homeowners manual was created and the home received public attention.

Building a LEED Home

Interested in hearing the architect for the LEED home speak in depth about his design?  Ian Parlin, of Richard Renner Architects, is giving a a talk next week on September 14th at 7pm.  Contact FW Horch, a sustainable supply store in Brunswick, for more details. 

LEED Project Focuses on Zero Energy

Things are really shaping up on site now, all framing is nearly complete so it is possible to get a feel for the building mass as well as the interior spaces.

Early in the design process we discussed options for renewable energy sources but were concerned about the initial cost. Recently Wright-Ryan contacted Energyworks of Liberty, Maine to develop a system for solar generated electricity and hot water that is affordable, efficient and works well with our design. Solar systems in this climate are more complicated that in southern climates because of the extremes between winter and summer. In the summer the increased exposure to sun leads to the generation of more electricity and hot water than the house can use, so systems are in place to deal with the excess.

Because the solar water heating system is designed for the cold winter conditions in Maine, there is the problem of too much hot water being generated in the summer. To deal with this excess the garage floor slab is designed to function as a heat dump. Whenever there is too much hot water in the system it will get diverted into a secondary loop of pipes cast into the concrete garage slab. There is no insulation under the slab, and the ground temperature is cooler than the air temperature in the summer, so heat will be transferred into the ground rather than making the garage too hot.

The solar electricity system has a grid-tied inverter so any time the home is generating more electricity than it uses it will send power back into the Central Maine Power grid for others to use. The home's electric meter will measure both incoming and outgoing electricity and the owner is only billed for the balance. The homeowner will see reduced electric bills in the winter and possible no bills at all in the summer. This system has the benefit of allowing your neighbors to benefit from the clean energy created on site!

How about the foundation?

We placed a lot of time and attention selecting environmentally preferable products for this project.  Here's a couple of note from Ben, the project manager:
-ICF forms were used.  These are made from EPS (expanded polystyrene) insulation that does not use CFC's (chlorofluorocarbons) in its manufacturing (believed to harm the ozone layer).  The product also creates a very tight building envelope as well as a highly insulated basement.
-We replaced cement with slag in our concrete mix.  We did this because slag is a recycled product, being a byproduct from the manufacture of steel.  

Cold Climate Framing Techniques

We have used a few of the Cold Climate building techniques in this house.  The book, by Joseph Lstiburek, holds a lot of information and I suggest you read it.  Here are a few techniques we used in the construction of our LEED house:

-Rigid at the perimeter band joists (outboard of the rim joist) to act as a thermal break
-ICF foundation to minimize heat loss through the basement
-Compressible sill sealer to minimize air infiltration through that interface
-Insulation at all box sills
-2' O.C. framing to conserve lumber as well as maximize insulation in exterior walls
-Rainscreen wall system to prevent moisture retainage in the siding and trim plane - More durable
-Metal roof to minimize snow/ice buildup on roof
-Sealed all wall plate to deck interfaces to tighten envelope

Architect and Builder Speak Up

Great news readers!  Ian Parlin, project architect for Richard Renner Architects, and Ben MacDonald, project engineer for Wright-Ryan, will be contributing to this blog about the LEED pilot home project on a regular basis.  Now there will be a greater opportunity to learn from the professionals about the process, the challenges and what they might do differently next time.  You can post comments and questions to this blog so feel free to use it as an educational tool.

Commute Another Way Day

For the third year we are participating as a company in the State's Commute Another Way Day.  It's suprising how challenging it is to convince people to try ride sharing or biking to work for even a day.  The good news is that each year we are able to sign up more and more participants. 

With the perpetual high cost of gas and the obvious impact on our climate, driving "smartly" should be encouraged.  We are thinking about an incentive program to reduce the number of cars that drive our employees to work every day and clog up our streets and limited parking.