After 3 long years of volunteer work the N. 21st Street project received a Platinum certification from the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) under the LEED for Homes Pilot program on February 18th, 2009. It is the first Platinum home in Ohio and only the 17th within the country in the affordable category at the time of certification.
This project was pushed forward by some very dedicated volunteers and a very patient owner. The house was constructed by the Home B.A.S.E. Foundation which takes high school seniors out of the class room to build homes for the working poor as part of their English, Government and Technology education programs. Roger Beck, a technology teacher, general contractor and the foundations founding member led the charge to build central Ohio’s first affordable green home. The Columbus Housing Partnership has been an integral part of the process. As the owner, they provided the initial home design from their stock set of plans provided to them by Sullivan Bruck Architects (Architect of Record).
From there a team was put together to review the plans and construction details of the original home design. One of the primary goals of this project was to show that any home can be a green home. So with some minor modifications by the Architect of Record to stack the plumbing, I was given the task to modify the envelope details and recreate the set of construction documents. Meanwhile Matthew Leasure of Kinzelman Kline Gossman and Vinnie Tremante of Williams Creek Consulting produced an amazing site plan that allows 98% of all rainwater to stay on our site as well as selected all Ohio native plants.
At the beginning of the project, we were only targeting a Silver rating. However we were given opportunities to help push the envelope while sticking to the idea of using off the shelf products and technologies. In addition to using standard construction techniques. Obviously these donations as well as volunteer labor affected the overall cost, which at this time we do not know what the final construction cost is. Therefore, at this time we are retrieving the value of our donations and plan on generating a cost analysis of what products were premiums to the project and see how they may have affected our overall rating if at all.
In the coming weeks I will be pulling together a few more posts that will discuss some of the stratagies that were used in the design and construction of this home. In the meantime you can check out the press release and some of the other coverage that this home has received.
Joshua has a degree in architecture and is a LEED Accredited Professional that has worked in the design and construction industry for over 10 years, focusing his efforts on energy efficiency and building science. He has organized multiple events in Ohio to give young designers the opportunity to learn about “green” home design and produce actual projects. He was also a key player in Ohio’s first LEED for Homes Platinum project. Joshua is also a certified Building Analyst through the Building Performance Institute and performs home energy audits, assisting home owners in reducing their energy usage.
