KB Home recently unveiled one of the largest communities of LEED Platinum homes in Playa Vista, California. Called Primera Terra, the community has 52 luxury condos certified to green building standards and each home will have an Energy Performance Guide sticker. These homes are about 40% more efficient than Title 24 standards and could cost as low as $57 per month on heating and cooling.
Art Stable is an award-winning project in the Cascade neighborhood of South Lake Union in Seattle. Designed by Tom Kundig of Olson Kundig Architects and developed by Point32, Art Stable includes ground-floor commercial and six live-work lofts (of which only two remain on the market). The project was built on an urban infill site — formerly a horse stable — and cleverly incorporates some of its work-ranch history in the design.
This is East Village Lofts in the Revitalization District of East 11th Street in Austin, Texas. The structure, designed by Bercy Chen Studio, makes a bold statement about the intersection of art and sustainability with a multifaceted facade of colorful steel panels. The panels, as you would imagine, double as a shade device and guardrails for condo balconies.
One home in this three-unit condominium building, The North House, is for sale right now on Vancouver Avenue in Portland, Oregon. The undeniably modern building was designed by William Kaven Architecture and includes reclaimed fir, radiant heat, dual-flush toilets, on-demand hot water, passive heating and cooling, rainscreen siding, and a good location near Mississippi Avenue and Williams Avenue.
A few years ago, we mentioned this project and want to take an opportunity to follow up. The new Lofts @ Cherokee Studios, designed by Pugh + Scarpa and developed by REthink Development, is now complete. Built on the same site as Cherokee Recording Studios, which was MGM Studios before that, the location saw the likes of numerous past and present musical giants, including Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Elton John, David Bowie, and Dave Matthews. It's now a mixed-use location seeking LEED Platinum certification.
A little over a year ago, we took a look at the green roof planned for Olive 8. It's massive — one of the largest in the city of Seattle. Now, the hotel/condo tower in downtown Seattle has been open for several months and officially received LEED Silver certification. It's one of only twenty other green hotels in the country to receive certification from the USGBC.
