Cleveland's Green Homes

Before moving from Cleveland in 2005, I was able to help organize what was the Emerging Green Designer’s Symposium with the Cleveland Green Building Coalition.  It was a group of young unregistered architects who had the chance to learn how to design a home in a more holistic sense utilizing green design strategies.  The first portion of the program was to learn from Jim LaRue – The House Menders, Inc., a local residential green building expert.  The second portion of the program evolved over time and gave the participants  the opportunity to use the skills they learned and design green homes.

2006 CitiRama Home

2006 CitiRama Home

With great interest from the community designs were produced to build 4 homes throughout the city of Cleveland.  The first was in 2006, which was the largest of the homes and built as a project of the Home Builders Association of Greater Cleveland for the 2006 CitiRAMA.  CitiRAMA was a project of the Home Builders Association of Greater Cleveland and the City of Cleveland, which created a showplace for residential construction in the urban core and gave the general public opportunities to view and purchase new homes in the City of Cleveland.

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2009 Open Architecture Challenge

My office has committed to work with a local high school on this competition in an effort to teach students about the profession as well as to consiously put more effort toward social responsibility within the office.

The 2009 Open Architecture Challenge invites the global design and construction community to collaborate with primary and secondary school teachers and students to create safer, healthier and smarter learning environments. Teams can partner with a school of their choice or design a classroom for Orient Global’s school-building partners.

This year’s jurors currently includes Dave Eggers, Michelle Kaufmann, Hilary Cottam, Kigge Hvid and others. More will be added over the course of the registration period. The winning designer/school team will be given up to $50,000 in funding for classroom construction and upgrading, plus a design grant of $5,000 for the designer to help the school complete the project.

Radio Boston: Boston's Greenest Houses

I came across this great radio show that was aired a couple of months ago.  They talk a lot about renovating existing structures for energy efficiency.  And talks about some of the strategies as well as future projects for Symbiotic Home.

Boston’s Greenest Houses

Posted by Adam Ragusea, Associate Producer, Monday, February 23rd, 2009

There’s particular interest in green housing in our city, but also particular challenges. Harsh New England winters drive up heating bills, and our beloved antique housing stock is hardly energy efficient. With federal stimulus dollars possibly going to retrofit all Massachusetts houses with “smart” energy meters, what are YOU doing to keep your home’s energy use in check?

Peter Thomson, environment editor for PRI’s The World, hosts our live web chat.

Listen to the entire show if the embedded link does not work at wbur.org – Radio Boston

Building Science Sunday: Armchair Building Science

Now this article talks a little about hiring the right professional when you are having problems with your home as the one in the article.

Don’t Try This At Home:  Armchair Building Science.

By Peter Yost via GreenBuildingAdvisor.com

Mold in a vented attice

Is the mold on the plywood in this attic the result of inadequate attic ventilation or air leakage?

The homeowners called me after a certified home inspector stated the former; that the attic was underventilated and moisture was building up as a result. The roof assembly had soffit vents at the eaves and two gable end vents. Not as effective as ridge-to-soffit ventilation, but probably close to building code requirements (see Green Basics – Attics).

I did not have the time to get down to the home to take a look myself, so I asked the homeowner to send me photos of the house and the problem. Bit dicey to diagnose a problem and give guidance over the phone based on a short series of photos, but armchair building science is an honorable pastime.

Continue reading the article at GreenBuildingAdvisor.com