I recently read about an impressive, three-unit residential building in Portland, Maine through an article by Seth Koenig in the Bangor Daily News.  After a little digging, I learned the project is spearheaded by Paul Ledman and Colleen Myers, as owners and developers, Mike White of Island Carpentry, the general contractor, and Kaplan Thompson Architects, the architectural firm.  Ledman wanted a future-forward building and ended up with something that doesn’t use fossil fuels.

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Hammer & Hand, a design-build firm based in Portland, is getting well-deserved attention for transforming this circa 1905, dilapidated eyesore into an energy-efficient duplex that uses less than $100 per month in energy.  With the help of Scott Edwards Architecture, the team expanded tiny spaces and transformed the lower level to facilitate aging in place.

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Santa Monica-based LivingHomes is doing great things with factory-built homes designed by elite architects. They built the first LEED Platinum home in the country and have since certified about 8 more Platinum-level prefabs in various places. Not satisfied with only single family homes, the company has been working on this 3-unit multifamily project in Los Altos, which is also shooting for Platinum certification.

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