Banwell’s Green Architecture Receives Kudos in Concord Monitor and Forest Notes
The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests’ opened the new French Wing of the Conservation Center on Earth Day 2001. Designed by Banwell Architects, the wing adds a timber-framed, three-story atrium to the headquarters building.
Banwell Architects was first asked to design new headquarters for the Forest Society in 1979 and has been invited back twice, in 1990 and 1999 to design additions to the complex. In each phase, the mission has been to demonstrate New England forest products and to promote sustainable design principles through appropriate technologies. The project received the National Passive Solar Design Award in 1982, sponsored by the Department of Energy and the American Institute of Architects.
Describing the new wing, the Society’s Forest Notes reported “the new addition was well-received by the large crowd who came to explore and exclaim over its many outstanding features.” The Concord Monitor noted that “The Conservation Center’s new wing will make environmentalists absolutely green with envy.”
The Concord Monitor further heralded “some of the most innovative advances in environmentally friendly construction” including:
- Water conservation through odor-free, indoor composting and low flush toilets, recycling, and “gray water” filtering and reuse.
- Energy savings with motion sensing lights, well-insulated walls and air exchanger.
- Heat generated by on-site “gasification” plant converting discarded wood chips into combustible gas.
- Non-traditional thinking including the use of natural canola oil instead of traditional hydraulic fluid in the elevator and parking so that non-polluting electric cars can recharge.
Concord Monitor, Sunday, April 15, 2001
Forest Notes, Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, Summer 2001
