Nearing its two-year anniversary, the ReStore Home Improvement Center in Springfield has expanded to offer more recycled building materials.

ReStore, a project of the Center for Ecological Technology in Northampton, has nearly tripled its space in an old factory at 250 Albany St. to 10,000 square feet.

"We didn't expect to expand so quickly, but the word is getting out," said store manager Holly Milton-Benoit. The store opened in September 2001.

Homeowners, contractors, retailers and manufacturers help keep usable materials out of landfills by donating them to ReStore. Some items are new warehouse surplus, discontinued, or misordered items sold at 50 to 65 percent below retail price.

ReStore provides other materials as well. Artists and theater people searching for props sometimes visit ReStore. Large colonial columns, marble from a nunnery, farmhouse sinks and hand painted tiles are among the wares. The ReStore also sells some products, such as Victorian windows, that are no longer manufactured.

ReStore also is joining with Western Massachusetts Electric Co. in allowing residents to exchange at no charge old halogen floor lamps for a new fluorescent torchiere. Fluorescent lights use 75 percent less energy than halogen and burn at much cooler temperatures, reducing the risk of fire. The program will run through December, and participants must be WMECO customers.

More information is available about ReStore by calling 788-6900 or visiting its Web site at www.restoreonline.org.

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