Geothermal Wells Go in Before the Building Goes Up

Before the steel, stone and glass can go up, our construction crew is starting with what goes down, and we mean way, way down—420 feet into the ground.

Geothermal system

As they have been preparing the site over the summer, our builders, Frank Rewold & Son Inc., have dug 16 geothermal boreholes, sometimes called “wells.”

The wells are part of a closed-circuit geothermal system that will heat and cool the new Administration Building. This energy-saving technology uses heat pumps to deliver heat from the earth’s mass to the buildings in cold months, returning it to the earth in warmer times.

Ford House’s goal is for the new Administration Building to be “net zero” and the Visitor Center to meet LEED Certified standards. Moving energy to and from the earth is one way to help hit the net zero target.

Next steps Frank Rewold & Son has also been putting in the footings for the buildings. The foundation walls can be seen going up in the photo below, outlining where new buildings will be. We expect to see steel going up later this fall!