“Green” Project in Progress
Neighbor to Neighbor is a non profit food and clothing bank serving the economically disadvantaged of Greenwich, Connecticut and neighboring towns. It has operated out of basement facilities at Christ Church Greenwich for the past 40 years. They are inadequate and a modest new building has been designed and approved by the town planning board to be built on an adjacent church property. Chandler was hired shortly after schematic design to manage the completion of the project towards the goal of being “Green” and energy efficient for minimum operation cost.
The first step was to determine if the design was suitable for a prefabricated modular building solution that might offer less cost, better quality with factory assembly and much less construction disruption on a sensitive site. That was successfully achieved. The next step was to ascertain the potential of solar energy. With bidding that was established and an application for Renewable Energy Credits was approved by the local utility. Energy modeling has begun and the project has qualified with a local utility incentive program for a size exemption for its goal of being at or as close to Net Zero Energy (NZE) as possible. As such this non profit will be the first non residential type building in Connecticut to qualify under this program. The final steps will be the integration of energy efficient measures including possibly a heat pump driven radiant heating and cooling system into the modular design and construction program. Construction is estimated to start in the spring of 2018 for completion by early fall.
