Letter: A Sustainable Jones Library?
Jones Library viewed from the North. Pink area is slated for demolition. Source: amherstma.gov
This letter was originally submitted to the Daily Hampshire Gazette in 2021
This summer’s devastating fires, floods and heatwaves have driven home the reality of climate change. As we deal with these disasters and prepare for the inevitable ones to come, it is imperative that we adopt sustainable practices in all facets of our lives. These changes must happen now.
In June 2021, the Town of Amherst adopted an ambitious new Climate Action Adaptation and Resilience Plan. The plan provides that “climate action, equity and resilience remain at the center of all municipal decisions.” The proposal for the redesign and expansion of the Jones Library should not be exempt from this assessment. What seemed like a reasonable plan ten years ago when the redesign was first proposed may no longer be consistent with the town’s current sustainability goals.
Facing the imminent threat of climate change, leading architects world-wide have put sustainability front and center in their work. Acknowledging that the greenest buildings are those that already exist, architects are repurposing existing buildings to reduce the environmental costs of new construction. These include the cost of destruction, removal and disposal of demolished buildings as well as the cost of new materials. The estimated 1,660 tons of debris created by the present library plan would fill approximately 400 22-foot long dumpsters. What effect will such large-scale demolition have on air quality? Where will this debris end up, and how much energy will it take to transport it to its eventual destination? These are just a few of the sustainability questions to consider in evaluating the present Jones Library plan.
Amherst should not kick the can of climate change down the road. This is not a question of supporting the Jones Library. We can come up with a plan for a better library that is consistent with the town’s sustainability policy if we drop the angry Yes/No rhetoric and work together for a positive outcome. If we fail to do that, the new climate plan is just a hollow promise.
Mickey Rathbun
Mickey Rathbun is a resident of Amherst.
Thanks, Mickey, for highlighting the massive amount of brick, mortar, and other debris that the Jones Library demolition/expansion project would irresponsibly create. That had somehow slipped out of the conversation about this project.
To the environmental downsides you mention, I’d add the pollution burden on downtown Amherst air as heavy trucks haul those approximately 400 22-foot long dumpsters’ worth of former Library through the Town and on to some dump.
It’s also important to remember that the Jones project has never been subject to the town Net-Zero Bylaw because it is not a town owned building. Unlike the new elementary school project, it does not have to produce all the energy it will use and the plan has NEVER included photovoltaics. The much touted cross laminated timber to mitigate the embodied carbon in the large construction has been replaced by traditional steel in the latest value engineering. Replacement of leaky windows just narrowly averted being cut as well, saved not by the building committee but by members of the historic commission. The only remaining “green” building plan is the replacement of the fossil fuel burning HVAC system with air source heat pumps, but this is the first thing that would be accomplished in a repair option once the demolition/expansion project is finally put to rest.
No one has yet mentioned the impact of the concussive vibrations of all these heavy loads on the almost 300 year old stone foundation, structure and plaster walls etc. of the Strong House. Who covers the liability for any damage: the library trustees, taxpayers or the construction company? I haven’t been able to find out anything more than “the Strong House Board is working on it!”