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Located at 16-18 Bell Road in Middlefield
MA, the new building, “Beltane Hill,” will provide us with
a
stockroom, packaging and shipping facilities on the Lower
Level allowing us to triple our business. On the First Floor, it has space for offices, daycare,
and dining . These first floor areas are intended to provide
the facilities the business needs for its employees, and do
double duty in providing high-speed-internet offices, dining,
and daycare for community use. The front pyramid will
provide space for charging all of AzureGreen's
merchandise for shipment, as well as providing a healing
space for people using the solarium and meeting room
above it. The solarium will provide passive solar
heating in the winter, as part of the green design.
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The owners are Tamarin and Adair Laurel.
Tamarin Laurel is an author,
has 10 years experience in Community Planning work with the
Middlefield Planning Board, and the Pioneer Valley Planning
Commission. Adair
Laurel trained and worked as an engineer, and he is CEO of AzureGreen,
a $4 million+ mail-order company with 17 employees. With more
room, AzureGreen expects its employment to double. Both
owners have 17 years of involvement with Middlefield, a rural
town in Western Massachusetts, which has spent recent years
working on ways to encourage economic development, create
local jobs, enhance the town tax base, and retain the
traditional weave of community interaction against the tide of
long commutes and dwindling local opportunity. The idea
for Beltane Hill was born from that Town discussion. To
contact us, please email info@beltanehill.com
The purpose is to create an Ecological, Energy-Efficient,
Economical, multi-Enterprise building capable of providing
Middlefield with infrastructure for Employment, Eating
together, E-networking, and Education.
Priorities: This “multi-E” building must embody the
values of being: Practical; Sustainable; Adaptable;
Low-maintenance; Ecological; Supportive of community
intentions (and intentional community); and Enhancing to the
quality of life. The design of both uses and facilities
must be made ‘in-relation-to’ the context in which they
will operate –working harmonious with place, people,
purpose, and planet.
Resources - Guidance for the
project comes from:
Feng Shui Designer Robert Blanchard of
Architecture Team, Pittsfield MA. www.thearchitectureteam.com
Tim Puntin, Hill Engineers of Dalton MA. www.hillengineers.com
Carl Orio of Water Energy Distributors, Inc, NH, www.northeastgeo.com
Michael Tillou, P.E. Tillou Engineering, Williamstown MA, www.tillou.eng.pro
Attny Alan Seewald of Amherst MA,
Bob Dvorchik, WMECO
Web Resources:
The LEED (Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System of U.S.
Green Building Council, www.usgbc.org
Guides of DesignLights.org
Northeast Sustainable Energy Association, www.nesea.org
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