Bates Street Senior Housing

     Maine is often depicted as an idyllic place in lots of movies and books. What a lot of people don’t know about Maine is that there are some great eco-friendly developments on the way. Bates Street Senior Housing is a senior center combined with housing. It shows that even a place made for seniors can be green.

     The Bates Street Senior Housing project is a 30,000 square-foot, three-story building on one acre of property in the heart of the Lewistown, Maine, inner city. It includes 30 units of low- income housing and a 1,300 square-foot Adult Day Care Center. Bordering on two main roads, the project has onsite access to public water/sewer, power, gas and city bus lines. The site is owned by the city and is in a federally designated Enterprise Zone. The developer, Community Concepts, Inc., will divide the site into two lots. In the lot next door to the project, the developer will build a Family Service Center that will house offices for family programs, housing, real estate development, a homeownership center, transportation, administration and human resources.

     Bates Street Senior Housing and the Family Service Center will comply with Green Communities standards and offer environmentally friendly features. The project incorporates green building innovations and materials such as:

     • Low VOC primers, paints, sealants and adhesives throughout n

     • Energy Star bath exhaust fans with timer controls and ducted to the building’s exterior

     • All floor, wall and joint penetrations sealed with low VOC caulking

     • Cooling uses natural ventilation -- no air conditioning was installed

     • All roofs designed with an overhang to direct water away from windows

     • All cold water pipes are insulated

     • All concrete slabs include insulating and water vapor barriers beneath them as well as radon mitigation systems

     • Building owner has Operations and Maintenance Manuals and instructions that include all the green building and landscaping features integrated into the project

     • Energy-efficient lighting