Environmental Action

Village Church’s Tillotson Building

Sustainable Design Features

Gastinger, Walker, & Harden Architects have provided the following list of Sustainable Design Features for the Tillotson Building, which houses Village Church’s Food Pantry and Clothes Closet.

• Building design- Access for multiple users allow individual parts of the building to function without requiring the whole building to be conditioned, lit etc. Compact footprint. 

• Site design- Roof rainwater is delivered to a rain garden south of the building designed with native planting and sub drainage system to efficiently return the rain water to the ground.  Building plantings are maintained with a drip irrigation system that will greatly reduce water usage. A water-free urinal is installed in the Men’s restroom. 

• Site lighting- Utilizes low poles with full cutoff fixtures minimizes light pollution. 

• Central work area harvests daylight from an insulated skylight system, reduces daytime lighting requirements. 

• Building Shell- Highly insulated, SIPS (structural insulated panels) roof is 10” of Styrofoam, rated R40; walls are R22. SIPS faces are OSB (oriented strand board) made from small pieces of recycled wood. No VOC (volatile organic compounds), no formaldehyde. 

• Glu-laminated timber structure- Renewable resource, small pieces of wood combined to provide maximum strength/span.  No old growth timber, no VOC, no formaldehyde. Warm friendly material. 

•Roofing- Heat reflective Energy-Star, cool roofing council rated membrane material that aids in building cooling. 

• Demonstration Photovoltaic Array- is installed to provide public education and supplement electrical needs for the walk-in cooler and freezer. 

• Interior Finishes- All paint is low to no VOC. No PVC finishes. Large areas of floor are concrete with special non VOC finish.  Carpeted areas receive carpet tile, minimum waste, maximum maintenance flexibility, high recycle content. 

• Mechanical System- Ground source heat pump is state-of-the-art highest efficiency cooling available. Utilizes (28) 400’ deep wells.  No condensers are a visual and acoustic plus for neighbors. Heat recovery wheel provides outside air intake and exhaust efficiency. 

•Small heat pumps are tied with water loop to wells; provide maximum flexibility of use; areas of building not utilized during the day do not need to be conditioned. 

• Lighting- High efficiency T5 lamps are used throughout, providing maximum lumens per watt input.  Overall lighting design is less than 2/3 watt per square foot with many areas less than ½ watt per square foot.  All major lighting is dual level switched with motion sensors providing further reduction of electrical usage. 

• Walk-in Cooler and Freezer- Condensers are located remotely to utilize generated heat in the winter and more efficiently remove it from the building in summer.