YEAR: 2021 to 2023

LOCATION: North Chatham, NH

PROJECT TYPE: New Build - Dining Hall, Kitchen

BUILDER: Steve Pelletier Homes

PARTNERS: Garland Mill, Engineering Services of Vermont, Revision Energy, Andy, Energy Balance

SYSTEMS & FEATURES: Electrification of a commercial kitchen

ENERGY RATING: All-Electric Camp

PROJECT STORY

We were engaged by the Appalachian Mountain Club to help create a new kitchen and dining hall at their hiking camp at Cold River, on the border of New Hampshire and Maine. We worked with Lodge Renovation Committee over the course of several years to create a new structure to serve for another hundred years at this isolated camp.

One of our sustainability goals was electrification with renewable energy. With an active volunteer board that included architects, maintenance staff, finance folks, and longtime campers, we created a design for a building to match the existing campus structures while moving the campus into the 21st century. The commercial kitchen, serving breakfast, bag lunch, and dinner each day of the camp's summer schedule, is now powered by electricity - hot water, cooking, lighting, and ventilation.

The remote site, aging power grid, and long winter were all challenges to the site crew, but they did amazing work, on a schedule driven by the start (and finish) of summer camp.

Summer camp started on schedule, in May 2023.