WISCASSET — Chewonki, a school, camp and environmental education organization, has announced a campus and program expansion for their property in Wiscasset, including several new buildings for Camp Chewonki and updates to existing facilities.
“We celebrated our centennial year in 2015 and used that 100-year mark as an opportunity to envision where we want our organization to go over the next century,” said Chewonki President Willard Morgan in a news release. “Breaking ground to provide permanent facilities for our girls camp is an important next step in a series of updates we have planned.”
The project includes new cabins, a washhouse, activity spaces, and accommodations for support staff on the east side of Chewonki Neck, a 400-acre saltwater peninsula reaching out into Montsweag Bay along the Back River. Additional facilities are planned to accommodate the growth of the camp program over time.
“Chewonki has provided summer camp and wilderness trip programs for young women for more than 20 years,” said Nancy Kennedy, vice president for Camp Chewonki, in the release. “And this opportunity to add a world-class residential facility to grow the program in Wiscasset is incredibly exciting.”
In particular, the design team worked hard to plan over and around the range of wetlands, vernal pools, granite ledges, and protected shorelands that make up the bulk of Chewonki’s property. “The natural features and variety of ecosystems on this land are impressive,” Morgan said. “That’s part of why we love it here. And we’re passionately committed to protecting them, even when it means going the extra mile for site development.”
The site plan for the project is the result of collaboration with several partner organizations. OPAL, a Belfast-based firm specializing in high performance residential and institutional buildings based on Passive House principles, collaborated with Wright-Pierce, an engineering firm with offices in Topsham, through the required permit processes. They built on original work created by Murphy, Burnham and Buttrick Architects, and Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, both with offices in New York City.
Architectural designs for the new buildings are provided by Susan T. Rodriguez | Architecture • Design, a New York-based firm recognized for design excellence and creating buildings inspired by the unique culture and character of the institutions and communities they serve, and OPAL, which recently designed and implemented a multi-unit housing project for faculty at Chewonki. Chewonki plans to work with local contractors and subcontractors to implement the project.
Chewonki plans to break ground on the project this summer, with a scheduled completion date for early next summer.
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