Hitchcock Center for the Environment
Completion
Occupancy
The building is owner-occupied, with approximately 14 staff (9.5 FTE). Occupant hours are standard M-F 8AM-5:30PM. Weekend hours include one Saturday per month at 4 hours. Evening programs average one per week over 14 weeks from 6:30-8:30PM. Occupancy hours are projected to increase over time.
Scope
The project was to build a 8,500 square foot environmental education center, to meet the Living Building Challenge.
| Type of Construction | New |
|---|---|
| Number of buildings | 1 |
| Floor area of each building | 8,949 |
| Bathrooms | 4.0 |
| Stories | 1 |
| Conditioned Building Volume | 98,937 cu ft |
| Conditioned Floor Area | 7,442 sq ft |
| Semiconditioned Floor Area | 1,087 sq ft |
| Unconditioned Floor Area | 420 sq ft |
| Historic significance |
Not applicable. |
Location and Climate Details
Educational/Assembly
| Address |
845 West Street Amherst, MA 01002
United States |
|---|---|
| Location Type | Rural |
| Climate Region | Zone 5 |
| Lat. / Long. | POINT (-72.5247293 42.3241969) |
| Elevation | 218 ft |
| Solar Insolation | .6914 kWh/m2/day |
| Annual CDD and Base Temp | 3037 | 50 |
| Annual HDD and Base Temp | 5754 | 65 |
Site
The site is located on land owned by Hampshire College. It was a former apple orchard and as a result was contaminated from lead arsenate spraying. The Hitchcock Center developed a plan to remediate soils on the site by stripping the top 7-9 inches off the surface. Contaminated soil was buried under the parking area, reducing costs for trucking and disposal off site. New clean soils from local sources were brought in to the site for landscaping and grading work.
Materials and Design Strategy
Materials for this project were required to meet the Living Building Challenge requirements. These included local/regional sourcing and vetting against the Red List.
Certified sustainably harvested wood
Cradle to cradle carpets, windows blinds
native landscaping
Local soils
No VOC paints and finishes
The building is located on a site with clear southern aspect for optimal solar gain. Triple glazed Alpen windows (71) and daylighting strategies were used throughout. There is some thermal mass in the concrete slab flooring.
Building envelope as engineering measure. Extensive solar studies to locate for optimal solar gain,
Roof overhangs.
Vegetated screen
Windows limited on north side
Not applicable.