Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens

Maclay Architects and Scott Simons Architects designed Maine’s greenest net-zero building, the Bosarge Family Education Center, at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. The award-winning education center, which faces true south, is Maine’s first LEED Platinum and Net Zero public building. Thornton Tomasetti served as the project’s green building consultant. Bensonwood, builders of high-performance houses and commercial structures, produced and installed the super-insulated, tightly-sealed building shell. The walls and roof that make up the building envelope are at least a foot thick, achieving an impressive efficiency rating of R40 in the walls and R60 in the ceiling. Unique triple-glazed windows, among the most efficient that can be bought in the U.S, provide passive solar gain in the winter, while keeping out the heat in the summer.