The house at 335 Freyling Place in Michigan is the 300th Habitat for Humanity of Kent County to achieve the LEED Platinum certification. The 1,519 square-foot, two-story home was designed by Image Design of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and is currently occupied by Karen Libbette and her five children. The house has also received the GreenBuilt Michigan Gold certification and is ZeroStep and 5+ Energy Star certified. The home has a HERS Score 34.
Charles Pickering, the founder and CEO of architectural and engineering firm Pickering Associates, recently received a LEED-Platinum rating for his project at 12 Faith Meadows in Williamstown, WV. This is the first LEED Platinum certified home in West Virginia, and boasts of 11 kWDC of generation capacity. The solar system is located in an optimal array on the house and garage roof, and provides all the energy usage needs for the household, with some to sell back through the power grid. The house received a LEED Point Score of 113 and a HERS rating of .43.
Marc Rutenberg, the CEO of the Florida company Marc Rutenberg Homes, has recently successfully designed and built a luxury home that complies with and even surpasses all Energy Star standards and is LEED Platinum certified. The Castaway III, as the house is called, measures 4,552-square feet, which is about 3,100 square feet larger than the average zero-energy home. This house proves that there is no need to sacrifice comfort and luxury to reduce one’s carbon footprint.
In 2011, the Denver chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) partnered with CAD-1, Inc. to administer a design-build competition for a home that would be built for Blue Spruce Habitat for Humanity in Kittredge, Colorado. The winning design of a duplex was submitted by Molly Blakley, Assoc. AIA; Alan Ford, AIA; Kathy Ford, AIA; and Matt Weaver, Assoc. AIA, with Alan Ford Architects P.C. as the Architect of Record.
When young Alex Finnell was challenged by his parents to design an “age in place” home for them and his 95-year old grandmother, he set about helping them to achieve their goal of living in their own home late into their retirement years while being as safe, independent, and comfortable as possible.
