Builder Magazine - July 2008 - (Page 38)

GREEN HOUSE into the community, among other artistic elements. All of the 21 apartments, ranging from 650-squarefoot, one-bedroom units to 1,580-square-foot, fourbedroom dwellings, exclusively serve residents earning 50 percent or below Seattle’s median income. A third of the apartments are reserved for families transitioning out of homelessness, for which the rent is no more than 30 percent of their income. While Hines admits that Croft Place Apartments could have been built for less, the ﬁnal cost was comparable to medium- or high-end housing elsewhere in the city. Because of their use of city funds, DNDA was required to pay prevailing wage rates for workers, something private developers don’t typically do, thus boosting the budget further. But the payoff, if not immediate return in investment, has long since been satisﬁed. Hines reports that residents take pride in their little community, a feeling nurtured by the artistic elements they created and personalized and by the pedestrian and neighbor-friendly atmosphere enabled by the master plan. Sustainable indeed.—R.B. “We expect it to be cutting edge on a national level,” says city project manager Brad Liljequist. “But we’re already ﬁnding that getting to a net-zero standard is more about piecing together parts that are already available.” The project team, including local builder Noland Homes, is hoping the project will proliferate. “If it’s not replicated in the general marketplace, then we have not met our mission of changing the market to aggressively green housing,” says Liljequist. GREEN BUILDING MANDATES lower-density projects, we’ll also be able to address issues of orientation,” which the city’s standards practically cannot, says Michelle Krezek, a county staff planner. In Austin, the unofficial birthplace of green building programs, city leaders are expected to enact a more robust minimum standard for new homes built in the downtown and an adjacent area. To gain a permit, homes and buildings must achieve a 2-star status (out of 5) from the Austin Energy Green Building program, up from a previous lone star– rating requirement. City officials and green building consultants say there should be no extra cost to gain the additional star, citing design solutions as opposed to mechanical or device-driven systems. Eventually, the new minimum standard will likely apply citywide. City leaders in San Jose, meanwhile, are considering whether to extend a minimum LEEDSilver rating mandated in 2001 for most new public buildings to private projects, including housing. The local HBA is lobbying for a voluntary standard to maintain competition and business investment, but Mayor Chuck Reed and other leaders appear adamant that some minimum requirements are unavoidable. “Mandates are coming,” said Reed in a San Jose Mercury News report last fall. “We may be ahead of the curve in how we implement them.” Some city policymakers are wary of incentive-based plans, saying those in place have largely been ignored. A mandate on private projects, they say, would take the city’s greening policies a step further.—R.B. Upping the Ante hen you think of municipalities that have led the charge to implement green building standards for new homes and other buildings, Boulder, Colo.; Austin, Texas; and San Jose, Calif., are among those at the top of the list. But despite legacies of green building programs dating back a decade or more and mature markets of like-minded (and skilled) builders, these three communities still aren’t satisﬁed. In March ( and effective in May), the commissioners of Boulder County enacted the ﬁ rst green building mandate for all new homes built in the unincorporated areas of the county’s borders. Called BuildSmart, the ordinance comes on the heels of last year’s upgrade to Boulder city’s longstanding Green Points program. In addition to deconstruction and waste management standards for new and remodeling projects, the main focus is on energy efﬁciency. Depending on square footage, builders will be required to meet a minimum HERS (home energy rating system) total and prove energy performance of at least 15 percent better than current code minimum. “Because we’ll serve larger parcels and W Three green-minded communities raise the bar for energy use and resource efficiency. E Future Green nvironmental science is an established major at colleges and universities across the country, but the program at Ferrum College, a four-year institution in Ferrum, Virginia, just got a boost from West Development Group (www.wdg silicones.com), a supplier to the commercial rooﬁng industry. WDG helped establish a scholarship fund at Ferrum for students pursuing the degree, donating a percentage of all future sales of its environmental products (including solventfree silicone roof coating) to the fund and encouraging its business and research partners to donate as well. Courtesy McStain Neighborhoods GOT GREEN PROJECTS, PRODUCTS, OR DESIGNS? E-MAIL DENISE DERSIN AT: ddersin@hanleywood.com TO READ MORE STORIES ON GREEN BUILDING, GO TO W W W.BUILDER ONLINE.COM/GREEN. 38 ■ B U I LD E R j u ly 2 0 0 8 W W W.BUILDERONLINE.COM http://www.wdgsilicones.com http://www.wdgsilicones.com http://WWW.BUILDERONLINE.COM/GREEN http://WWW.BUILDERONLINE.COM/GREEN http://WWW.BUILDERONLINE.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Builder Magazine - July 2008

Builder Magazine - July 2008 Contents Editor's Notes B-Mail Book It Green House Business Update Products National Beat Seider's Economy The Greener Good Commentary Land Planning Design Construction Marketing Ad Index Further Considerations Environmental Concerns Commentary Road to Perdition? Editor's Notes Flip Contents

Builder Magazine - July 2008

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