PROVIDENCE BUSINESS NEWS - APR 25-MAY 1, 2011

Unitarian faith embedded in E.G. church project

BY DENISE PERREAULT

Inspired by a core principle of the Unitarian faith, the 200-member congregation of the Westminster Unitarian Church in East Greenwich is constructing a parish house equipped with many of the latest green features to better protect and preserve the environment.

Bill Stone, chairman of the eight-member building committee in charge of the $2 million project, pointed out that a major tenet of the Unitarians is a belief in and respect for the way everything living is connected and that, Stone said, “translates into stewardship of the environment.”

Even before plans for the new parish house, or church, were envisioned, the congregation had a “Green Sanctuary Committee,” Stone said, which for five years has worked to lighten the church’s carbon footprint by, for instance, keeping a close eye on the kinds of cleaning materials used.

“We believe in living your values,” Stone said, “Building a building is not an inherently green thing to do,” so the congregation chose to make the new structure as green as possible — without overdoing it.

“Anytime there is discussion about new building today, there’s a conversation about going green. …We’re not a showcase, we have no geothermal heating and no solar heating,” Stone said.

It may not be unusual for a Unitarian congregation to go green, but in the 20 years that the Brewster Thornton Group Associates have been in business in downtown Providence, this is only the second green church project the architectural firm has taken on, according to Barbara J. Thornton, partner.

“We did design a parish house for Sts. John and Paul parish in Coventry with green features,” Thornton told Providence Business News, “but it did not go quite so far as this.”

She estimated that the green construction probably added about 7 percent to the total $2 million cost of the East Greenwich project, but was quick to note that the congregation will make up that difference “very quickly” in operational savings due to more-efficient insulation and heating systems that are part of the green movement.

Among the features Thornton said are part of the two-story parish hall:

·         A parking area made with a “re-enforced grass surface” that looks like grass, but is strong enough to hold motor vehicles and permeable, so that stormwater goes through it rather than run off into nearby roads;

·         Building orientation faces south, with a sloping roof equipped for the future installation of solar panels;

·         The entire structure is “super-insulated,” Thornton said, with “highly efficient, solar-reflecting windows” and first-floor, radiant heat with seven separate zones so heat can be saved in rooms not in use all the time.

Studies have shown, she said, that when people are given control over heat and lighting at their workplaces, they generally “are happy with less heat and less light” than expected.

·         Three boilers, each the size of a suitcase and hanging on the wall, to provide hot water for the radiant heat system and second-story baseboard loop, using natural gas;

·         Use of linoleum, and old material dating to the 1950s that Thornton said is gaining popularity because it is “very green.” It is made up of linseed oil and wood dust,” she said, compared to vinyl tile made with harmful chemicals such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

·         “Dark-sky” lighting in the parking lot to limit light pollution; two-level, flushing toilets to save water and the steel, aluminum, acoustical tile and concrete used in the structure all contain “recycled components,” Thornton said.

A two-story, fellowship hall will be the centerpiece of the parish house, which also will have a catering (versus full) kitchen, conference room, clerical office space, a minister’s office, nursery, five classrooms for Sunday school and an attic for storage. The building will have sprinklers throughout. Construction began in the fall and Thornton said the parish house should be ready for use in August. Pariseault Builders Inc. of Warwick is the general contractor.

The distinctive, octagonal chapel also on the property, designed by well-known Rhode Island architect William Warner, will remain as the congregation’s sanctuary, Thornton and Stone said. The congregation now has an interim pastor, Tricia Brennan, but was scheduled to announce the appointment of a permanent pastor April 25. Barbara Fast, the former pastor, this year left to be with her family in another state.

The Westminster Unitarian Church, which was located on Westminster Street in downtown Providence many years ago, has been holding regular services at a temporary location in Coventry while the parish house is built, Stone said. For the first time a few weeks ago, members of the congregation had the chance to tour the construction site. “It is hard to overstate how excited the people were,” he said.