OceanView at Falmouth: Falmouth Schools Redevelopment Project
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The former site of the Falmouth elementary schools was a twenty acre parcel abutting OceanView at Falmouth, a retirement community providing Independent and Assisted Living options. When the school property became available, OceanView at Falmouth submitted a successful request for proposal bid to the Town of Falmouth. With a growing senior demographic due to the aging Baby Boom generation, there is an increasing need for spacious, independent apartments and cottages and a strong need for specialized memory care as a part of an on-site care continuum. With the acquisition of the Falmouth School property, OceanView was able to develop a coordinated master plan to incorporate some of these needs including: the construction of a new and unique product on the OceanView campus — Blueberry Commons – three Independent Living apartment buildings; Legacy Memory Care; Schoolhouse Cottages and the reuse/renovation of the existing Lunt School to include professional office space, an Adult Daycare Center and an Auditorium. The new Blueberry Commons residences expand the niche in providing a variety of apartment styles, sizes and prices in energy efficient buildings that provide sunlit filled corner apartments with private balconies, fireplaces, solar panels for domestic hot water and underground parking. The Legacy Memory Care building – connected to the existing Lunt School – provides much needed, secure housing for seniors struggling with the daily effects of Dementia in an energy efficient building with Photovoltaic panels on the roof to take advantage of the southerly exposure. Thirty-six Independent Living cottages, also designed with energy efficient envelopes and photovoltaic panels, and currently under construction, are placed on the site in a manner that buffers the existing community from the more “commercial” Lunt School and nestles nicely into the gradual slope of the property. This acquisition also created a private/public partnership with the Town of Falmouth to provide mutually beneficial spaces including the Village Green and Lunt Auditorium located in the renovated Lunt School. OceanView has placed great importance on minimizing its’ impact on the environment by designing a dense, compact development that includes numerous sustainable measures.
Gawron Turgeon Architects worked closely with another local architectural firm, Kaplan Thompson, who are net-zero champions, to push the “envelope”, so to speak, on the large Blueberry Commons structures in regards to building envelope strategies and techniques. This strategic, sustainable vision will maintain the leadership of OceanView on the forefront of Maine’s retirement industry. The projected energy use was modeled to be 10.83 KBTU/SF/YR. The buildings have not been occupied long enough to compare to actual energy use.
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MEASURE 1: DESIGN & INNOVATION
-From the beginning of the design process the owner had the vision to minimize the impact on the property and create density by designing Blueberry Commons as three buildings, compact in shape with one building as three stories and two of the buildings as four stories – something unique in Falmouth, Maine – a suburb of Portland.
-The impact was also lessened by providing underground parking for the buildings to minimize impervious surfaces on the site. This not only provided an innovative design for the Town but it provides an amenity for the residents so that they can access the vehicles directly from indoors in the cold winter months.
-The space between the buildings that is connected by the underground parking was designed as a roof garden that allows residents to enjoy the landscape from their apartments.
MEASURE 2: REGIONAL COMMUNITY DESIGN
-Located overlooking Casco Bay, OceanView rightly comes by its name. Designed in the more simple modern, shingle style vernacular, the varied buildings have their own characteristics and scale, yet blend nicely together.
– The design of this community expansion, from the signage to the buildings to the interiors, sustained regional and town characteristics that have great value to the residents and the surrounding communities.
MEASURE 4: BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN
-With the reuse of the existing Lunt School, resources were conserved by not having to construct a new building.
MEASURE 5: LIGHT & AIR
-Blueberry Commons provides unique layouts with every apartment located on a corner of the building to maximize natural light and sun exposure.
-Blueberry Commons also provides private balconies for each apartment to allow for direct outdoor access for every resident.
-Schoolhouse Cottages were sited to maximize the sun exposure on the living sides of the homes as well as provide excellent exposure for the PV panels.
MEASURE 6: WATER CYCLE
-Water conserving plumbing fixtures were used in Blueberry Commons.
-The underground parking contributes to the overall site water quality by limiting the impervious site surfaces.
MEASURE 7: ENERGY FLOWS & ENERGY FUTURE
-Photovoltaic Solar Panels were used throughout the project to decrease the carbon footprint of the project.
-Triple paned windows were installed in Blueberry Commons to maximize the effects of a highly efficient building envelope and promote comfort for the senior residents.
-Gawron Turgeon Architects partnered with Kaplan Thompson, leaders in Net-Zero design, to look at Blueberry Commons holistically through energy modelling to determine the optimum r-values and heating/cooling systems for the project while meeting the overall construction budget.
MEASURE 8: MATERIALS & CONSTRUCTION
-Over 85% of the construction debris of Blueberry Commons was recycled by the General Contractor.
MEASURE 9: LONG TERM FLEXIBILITY AND ADAPTABILITY
-Although Blueberry Commons was designed as wood building, with the potential for structural limitations, steel was incorporated to ensure long spans so that all of the apartments could be re-worked in the future based on market demands with little or no bearing walls.
MEASURE 10: COLLECTIVE WISDOM & FEEDBACK LOOPS
-With the design team of Gawron Turgeon Architects and our senior housing experience and the knowledge of Kaplan Thompson and their Net-Zero experience, Blueberry Commons was designed with strategies that balanced a unique user group with a sustainable design solution.