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Green college dorm ready for students

UNITY -- A bumper sticker on a car in a Unity College parking lot read: "One solution comes up every morning."

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Members of Unity College faculty and staff along with members of the media stand outside the newly built TerraHaus at Unity College on Thursday.

Staff photo by Michael G. Seamans

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Mark Tardif, associate director of communications for Unity College climbs the stairs to the second story of the new TerraHaus at Unity College during a tour Thursday.

Staff photo by Michael G. Seamans

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Next to the parking lot is TerraHaus, a two-story, 2,000-square-foot residential hall for which sunlight will be the key to lower heating costs.

Belfast-based G*O Logic architect Matthew O'Malia and carpenter Alan Gibson designed and built the nation's first dorm to meet passive house certification standards.

The standards, the highest international standards for energy efficiency, require that the dorm use 90 percent less energy for space heating than standard buildings.

On Thursday, Gibson and O'Malia, as well as landscape architect Ann Kearsley of Portland, gave the Unity staff tours of the eco-friendly, stylish tan-shingled cottage.

TerraHaus, which cost about $475,000 and took about three months to build, is nearly airtight, has a heat recovery ventilation system, is exceptionally well insulated and has superior quality windows.

Those high-quality features, said Gibson, will allow TerraHaus to be heated this winter with an electric baseboard heater at a cost of about $30 per person.

Gibson and O'Malia also designed the GO Home on Crocker Road in Belfast, the first passive house-certified home in Maine and the 12th passive house in the country.

According to Doug Fox, director of the Center for Sustainability and Global Change at Unity, TerraHaus is the first of three planned residence halls on the Quaker Hill campus that will comprise the SonnenHaus village of energy-conscious dorms.

The first floor of TerraHaus has an entry hall, common kitchen and living area, a single bedroom, a double bedroom, a toilet room and a shower room.

The concrete floor and large concrete table are stylish, durable and functional.

Barn boards cover one wall and the ceiling in the open kitchen, which includes a stainless steel refrigerator, oven, double-induction buffet warmer, deep sink, white cupboards and shelving.

The living space, which is separated from the kitchen by the concrete table and stool chairs, has a couch, two comfy chairs and a wall-mounted flat-screen TV.

Three double bedrooms, one single bedroom, a toilet room and a shower room are upstairs.

The stairs, said O'Malia, were placed adjacent to the wall with the four large south-facing windows, to afford privacy to residents gathered in the common living area. A small wooden table is underneath the stairs.

In the toilet rooms and shower rooms, metal sap buckets affixed to walls hold students' toiletries.

A solar hot water system installed by ReVision Energy of Liberty and Portland will provide hot water for showers and washing dishes.

Jesse Pyles, Unity's sustainablilty coordinator, said 10 of the college's 500-plus students were chosen by lottery to live in the cottage.

The lottery winners agreed to participate in educational programs, including giving tours of the one-of-kind dorm.

Kearsley's outside landscaping includes a large wooden deck, a bicycle rack, ledge, rocks, shrubs, flowers and grass.

Mown paths, lighted paved paths, a garden and a clothesline with a planted screen are planned for the site.

Students are moving into Unity, which bills itself as "America's environmental college," this weekend. Classes begin Aug. 29.

Beth Staples -- 861-9252

bstaples@centralmaine.com