Green Building : Jetson Green

Jackson Place Townhomes, Green Infill Luxury

Cascade Built recently finished construction on Jackson Place Townhomes, a two-unit, urban infill project built to LEED Silver certification (currently only registered).  As you can tell, it has that undeniable modern appeal, which is stylishly intertwined with green construction and design.  For $485,000, you could walk away with one of these 2 bedroom, 1.75 bath, 1260 sf townhomes.  Good design is a like a square footage multiplier -- the better the design, the smaller your space requirements. 

Holyoke Cabin, Two Container Green Getaway

There's something so rustic, so American about this project.  Two brothers.  A long history living on the land of your youth.  Paul Stankey, co-founder of Hive Modular, with his wife, his brother, and his brother's wife, have set about an interesting journey to build a cabin on the family land in the hills north of Twin Cities.  They purchased two, twenty foot, used containers for $800 each and labored to transport them to the property.  After getting the containers in place, progress has continued, piece-by-piece.  In the end, the cabin home will have a kitchen, dining room, living room, wash and clothes area, and two queen beds. 

The home will be powered, at least in partial, by a small solar array.  Also, the downspout will be will be hooked up to a cistern to collect rainwater.  We'll keep watching as the final details fall into place.  Via Hive Blog + rolu | dsgn. 

Amenity: Green Fabrics, Furniture, Art, + More

Amenity is a wonderful green home company, especially for all you eco-parents out there.  Amenity offers a hip line of eco fabrics, bedding, nursery furniture, pillows, wall art, and even totes.  Their fabrics are all made from organic and sustainable materials and printed using water-based, environmentally-friendly inks. 

Destiny USA to Build Green, Create Clean Energy (S2)

You may have heard about a huge mall, entertainment, tourist project in central New York called Destiny USA.  It's quite the scheme that's been in planning for many years.  I just caught news of some of their phase I and II plans for green building and energy.  For the 1.3 million sf Phase I, they retained Tangarie Energy to place sixteen, 5 kW drill-bit shaped wind turbines in the parking lot, which will produce roughly 64,000 - 84,000 kW hours of clean energy.  They also want to be 100% fossil fuel free and energy efficient, so we'll probably hear more specific details in the future.  The turbines are designed to work well in lower wind speeds and should provide about 30% of their energy needs.   

Phase II will start in 2009.  For that, they're planning a 1,300+ key hotel tower and conference facility, which will be built to LEED Platinum certification.  The unique looking hotel project, shaped almost like blades of grass, will generate electricity from its solar panel facade and hydro-electric turbines (using rainwater collected on the roof).  Once finished in 2012, it is planned to be the tallest building in upstate New York. 

Adaptive Reuse for LEED Wis Tavern

The first Gold certified LEED-H home in Illinois is built from the renovation of an old neighborhood tavern.  The 3,800 square foot building is used by the owners as both a residence and as the offices of their company:  Smog Veil Records.  The label has adopted an "eco-friendly" set of principles, and the owners felt their home/office ought to reflect those values as well.  Daylighting, recycled materials, and efficient appliances were all part of this project.  Inside, some of the floors are made of a terrazzo made from recycled glass and chunks of old vinyl records.  (That's probably the only kind of vinyl flooring anyone should have.)

Green Builders, Carbon Neutral California, Green Productivity, + Real Estate Economics (WIR)

• Builders return to class for lessons in 'green.'
• California energy regulators adopted a target that all homes built after 2020 produce at least as much energy as they consume.
• Going green draws talent, cuts costs.
• New eco-friendly condo towers defy the logic of the market downturn.
• Green building projects will skyrocket over next five years.

$90 Billion or $300 Per Person [Editorial]

With the price of oil at $95 a barrel, economists estimate that U.S. households will spend an additional $90 billion on costlier gasoline.   Estimating our population at 300 million, that's an average of $300 per person.   Between my wife and I, that means we're giving up $600 of our economic pie to the recently increased cost of transportation, on average.

[Video] Anatomy of a Green Renovation

If you have time, you can sit through all ten of these episodes and really soak in some excellent information.  In Dwell's first web video series, Building Green in Harlem, the modern magazine company followed David and Alysia as they renovated a brownstone into a modern, sustainable home.  For some reason, the last and final video, Episode 10, which I've gone ahead and embedded above for your Friday viewing pleasure, isn't on the Dwell website with the others.  It is on GreenStreet's website; GreenStreet was the design/build team for the project.  The above video shows what they were able to accomplish, and videos like this give people an idea of what can honestly be expected in a green rehab.  Here: open, light, airy, modern.

Feedreaders: click here to view if you do not see the video.

100k House, Trifecta of Modern, Green, Affordable

Overnight, Postgreen announced its first development project in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia.  It will be a small project with two small, two-bedroom homes that will be modern, green, and affordable, a powerful trifecta of aspirations.  Generally speaking, the homes will be designed by Interface Studio Architects and will be loftstyle with 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, and enough green amenities to qualify for about a LEED Silver certification.

Interestingly, Postgreen is also conducting a case study to try to build one of the homes for only $100K.  The purpose would be to prove that modern, green homes can be affordably built today.  They've started a blog, the 100k House, to document the entire process from planning to construction to sale.  If you have experience in this endeavor, and I'm sure you do or you wouldn't be reading Jetson Green, Postgreen is looking for feedback for every step of the process, which you can do by visiting the 100k House blog.  More here.

ASAP House, Northeastern Net Zero Energy Home

This is the ASAP House, a House About Saving A Planet designed by Laszlo Kiss.  Like many green designs generated these days, this home will be a net zero energy home -- it will produce as much energy as it uses over a certain period of time.  To do that, the home will have good insulation, Energy Star lighting fixtures, a 10 kW photovoltaic array, and a geothermal heating and cooling system.  Currently, a prototype ASAP House is being built for Sag Harbor, New York.  Just last month, the factory was moving along well on three modules that will end up completing the home. 

The ASAP house will cost roughly $250-265 psf, depending on site conditions, and is being designed with LEED certification in the works.  It is anticipated that the finished home will be about 2,500 sf, with 4 bedrooms, and 2.5 bathrooms.  It'll be fun to follow the blog progress and see the finished product.  At that point, we'll officially have one more prefab contender, and more particularly, one that can service the Northeast!