LEED Version 3 has some new aspects, and the green building community is trying to understand the ins and outs.  One aspect has been talked about strenuously in the past week, and I thought we should ground ourselves a little bit.  Let’s take a step back and look at Minimum Program Requirements (“MPRs”), the concept of de-certification, or certification revocation, and whether this all means that projects can lose certification if they do not perform as designed.

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Just a quick jaunt north of Dallas right off of Central Expressway, there's a small community called Urban Reserve.  In Urban Reserve, all the homes are modern and sustainably designed — the minimum standards require Energy Star and a HERS of at least an 80.  This home is just one of several architecturally unique homes in the development.  Referred to as UR 45, the LEED Platinum certified home was designed by Shipley Architects for an executive of the development company, Rick Fontenot.  

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This newly constructed 3,200 square-foot building, Wetland Discovery Point, is the third LEED Platinum certified structure in the state of Utah, making it one of the greenest buildings around.  WDP is part of the Utah Botanical Center of Utah State University and provides an indoor / outdoor learning experience for over 4,000 school children each year.  The building was designed by ajc architects and built by Big-D Construction, and here are some of its green elements:

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Just last month, these seven, attached, single-family homes received LEED Platinum certification — the first homes in Arkansas to achieve the USGBC's highest designation!  Vertical Modern Urban Lofts is located in downtown Little Rock, and the second phase of the project is under construction right now.  The homes range in price from $299k – $399k, and they're destined to save owners some cash going forward.  They exceed Energy Star standards by 41% and feature a number of green elements:

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Architect Ray Kappe designed the first (and now iconic) LivingHome in Santa Monica, and now, he has a new multifamily design that LivingHomes will prefabricate for a site in Los Altos, California.  The project includes three attached units, of which, two units will have three bedrooms and three bathrooms and one unit will have one bedroom and one bathroom.  One of the units will be owner occupied, one will be low-income, and the other will be a standard rental.  All of them will be green. 

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