Until 200 years ago, Portsmouth was a bustling seaport that fueled prosperity throughout the region. Today, the brick and mortar relics of that era make Portsmouth an iconic destination for tourists from around the country, but preserving that historic spirit is a challenge for a city that also wants to earn its place in the modern world.
The members of the Portsmouth Historical Society found themselves facing just such a hurdle five years ago when they moved their headquarters from the John Paul Jones House to the site of the old public library on Islington and Middle Streets. Today, that location is known as Discover Portsmouth and along with the aforementioned Portsmouth Historical Society is home to the Seacoast African-American Cultural Center (SAACC) as well as the Star Island Corporation.
In May, Discover Portsmouth held its season opening. And, while the focus of the event was the building's artifacts, and heritage including a new exhibit featuring centuries-old pottery shards and other ephemera from the Isles of Shoals it also kicked off a new green focus for the 200-year-old building.
Two of the three buildings that make up Discover Portsmouth the Benedict House and Academy were built in the early 19th century, shortly before Portsmouth's shipping economy collapsed. As such, the windows were singled-paned, while the plaster walls weren't constructed to accommodate modern conveniences like electrical wiring, piping and ventilation ducts. Even the newest building, built in 1976 to join the two historic buildings, had an outdated boiler system that couldn't keep up with heating demands.
The system was wasteful and very inefficient. We couldn't afford to keep the center open year-round, said Maryellen Burke, Executive Director of Discover Portsmouth. The buildings are so old, it just cost too much to heat them in the winter.
Because the local arts scene doesn't fade with the summer crowds, being closed for half the year wasn't an option for a financially independent organization. The only solution was to renovate.
Last spring, we secured a 25-year lease from the city for zero-dollars a year, explained Burke. But in exchange for that, we have to invest millions of dollars in the building.
Knowing that preserving the Discover Portsmouth's historic core was of the utmost importance, the Society turned to a company renowned for their design expertise: TMS Architects.
With long resume of restoring local historic buildings to their heyday grandeur (including Wentworth By The Sea and the Portsmouth Music Hall), the Society saw in TMS a company willing to take on a challenging and rewarding project. For TMS, renovating historic buildings is not only important from a cultural perspective, but from an environmental one as well.
Restoring a historic building isn't as simple as coming in and gutting the walls and replacing all the pipes and ducts. You've got to preserve the feel of the structure, and anything you add needs to be sustainable, said architect Nicole Martineau of TMS. And it's got to be sustainable from multiple avenues, both environmentally and financially.
At Discover Portsmouth, TMS installed a number of green systems that, the most important of which was replacing an outdated boiler the size of an entire room with a unit that could fit into the trunk of a car. The new boiler is 60-70 percent more efficient, and is connected through hidden ductwork to 17 heat pumps that control both hot and cold air throughout the buildings.
The heat pumps give us control over each space, said Martineau. If the sun is beating down on one side of the building, we're not cooling the entire building. Because of preservation reasons we can't replace the windows in the historic parts of the building, but the pumps direct the heat to where it needs to go so as little energy is wasted as possible.
Another money-saving addition is the energy reclamation unit TMS installed in the penthouse of the Benedict House. Exhaust air from heating systems is normally released along with all its heat, but the energy reclamation unit recycles that heat and adds it to the cooler intake air. That way, the boiler in the basement has less work to do.
In the interest of preserving the original walls, some of the modern additions such as new wiring were left exposed, as hiding them would have involved unnecessary damage.
Through loans, grants, private donations, and funding from the Recovery Act and Community Development Finance Authority (CDFA), they have secured all but $27,000 of the nearly completed first million-dollar leg of renovations. So far, TMS's retrofits, during April alone, saved 58 percent of gas and electricity costs, compared to the same month in 2006.
Still, TMS is far from finished: With new funds now secure, they'll soon replace the Benedict House roof, adding even more insulation, and replacing many of the doors and windows with tighter, more efficient glass and panels.
It seems comfortingly circular that Portsmouth's modern green industry is not only helping to preserve the historic identity of the city, but making it possible for the city's new identity as the region's arts and culture hub to prosper as well.
Current Issue - May 2024