Sustainable Student Housing and Campus Center

College of the Atlantic wanted to increase on campus housing accommodations for its students to promote community and to reduce commuting from off-campus housing. The College also wanted to demonstrate that new construction and the renovation of an older building could be done in ways that create a vital living and working environment that can be both sustainable and inspiring.

College of the Atlantic is committed to the principles of green design: creating buildings that maximize energy efficiency while minimizing adverse environmental impacts, according to current sustainable practices and technologies. Beyond this, the College has pledged to move toward using only renewable resources for heating.

The construction of the Kathryn W. Davis Student Residence Village and the Deering Common is an important step toward this ambitious goal. Their heat comes from a renewable wood fuel as does the domestic hot water. These houses support COA’s residential life program by creating an intimate atmosphere, fostering a family-like environment — a place where students can learn by living and studying together. From a human perspective, the student residences and campus center were designed with the idea of providing a physical manifestation of the college’s human ecology focus.

The student housing and campus center represent a glowing example of sustainability through a combined effort of engineering, architecture, community input, green technology and renewable resources. These combined efforts have resulted in a forward thinking, highly sustainable community of buildings while still managing to be asthetically pleasing as well as economically viable and efficient.   

Kathryn W. Davis
Student Residence Village

The State of Maine is a heating climate. Only 0.02% of the annual hours require cooling for buildings, so air conditioning is unnecessary. The predominant strategy was to minimize heat loss.
Building enclosures were constructed to be as tight as posible to minimize air infiltration and heat loss. They were repeatedly tested and verified to achieve a peak load of 8 BTUs per hour/square foot by using R40+ walls, R45 roof plane, R5 windows, and a remarkable final air-tightness of 0.79 ACH50. This was consistent over three residential buildings. Without the comprehensive air sealing design and implementation the buildings would have leaked ±7 times more.
In addition:
- Simple roof geometries and large overhangs protect buildings in this wind-driven, rainy environment.
- Small rooms benefit from the single-story link, allowing windows on all sides of the upper stories.
- Dramatically reduced heat load allows ventilation to provide the heating distribution to the upper two floors, thereby eliminating the considerably more expensive radiant floor initially planned for the second and third floors.
- No basements were used on this rocky Maine site. Thermal mass coupling is fully preserved.
- Entry air locks for each house preserve comfort in the small, populated living spaces.

Summary

Heat-
•• Centrally located wood pellet boiler uses renewable, locally-sourced wood pellet fuel
Water-
•• Composting toilets on upper floors
•• Low-flow water toilets on ground floors
•• Grey water from showers preheats incoming cold water to temper it thus requiring less hot water for a comfortable shower
Walls-
•• Double-stud walls minimize heat loss to the outside through wood studs
Insulation-
•• 12” of non-emitting, recycled cellulose fill in wall cavities
Windows-
•• Triple-glazed glass panes reduce heat loss
Air-
•• Energy recovery ventilation system ensures fresh air by preheating incoming air to all rooms to reduce heating demand
Building Materials-
•• Local and sustainably harvested wood used where possible
Waste-
•• Built-in recycling containers
•• Composting receptacles in every kitchen
Electricity-
•• Electricity use offset by windpower renewable energy certificates throughout campus
Education-
•• Individual building meters reveal specific
Energy Use-
•• Common areas maximize student discourse — and fun
•• Student input into original plans fostered community-oriented design

Deering Common
Community Center

Heat-
•• Uses same wood pellet boiler for heating and domestic hot water as student residences
Water-
•• Waterless composting toilets throughout
•• Waterless urinals
Walls-
•• Strapping added to original single-stud walls, reducing heat loss
Insulation-
•• Minimum of 5” of closed cell spray foam
Windows-
•• New windows are triple-glazed; historic panes have storm window fittings
Air-
•• Energy recovery ventilation system ensures fresh air
Materials-
•• Local and sustainably harvested wood when possible
•• Materials selected that do not result in off-gassing
Waste-
•• Built-in recycling containers
•• Composting receptacles in the kitchen
Preservation Via Creative Reuse-
•• Reused flooring where possible
•• Entranceway reading nook fully restored
•• Lighthouse tower feature kept on each floor
•• Restored fireplace
•• Multi-paned windows retained in much of ground floor
•• Original wainscoting, wood panels retained where possible

The innovative practices are listed above. No one practice alone has led to the success of the student residences and campus center, but rather it was the integration of various design concepts and building practices that complement each other that have created these successful buildings and the feeling of a village area.