This is the Tiburon Bay House, a stunning LEED Platinum home owned by Helene Marsh in the San Francisco Bay area.  It was designed by Butler Armsden Architects and built by McDonald Construction & Development, Inc., the same company behind a couple other high-profile LEED Platinum homes — the Margarido House and the Hillside House.  Tiburon Bay House replaces a 1,500 square-foot home that was deconstructed by hand with 95% of the material going to reuse or recycling.

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This is The New American Home — a project built every year in conjunction with the NAHB’s International Builders’ Show — in Orlando, Florida.  The 4,000 square-foot home collected eight green building certifications, including LEED Platinum and NAHB Emerald, and is expected to consume 52% less energy than a standard home of similar size.  Plus, a 4.0 kW solar array provides about 18% of annual energy needs.

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What’s planned for construction by students on an infill lot and aiming to meet the Living Building Challenge with LEED Platinum certification?  That would be Canada’s Greenest Home in Ontario.  Students enrolled in The Endeavour Centre’s Sustainable New Construction: Building a New Future program will build the 2,000 square-foot home during a five-month period this summer.

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This is the first LEED Platinum home in Athens.  Designed by Lori Bork Newcomer, principal of Bork Architectural Design, Inc., the 2,632 square-foot home blends native materials to maintain neighborhood context and contemporary design to suit the aesthetics of owners Lori and Quint Newcomer.  Lori and Quint self-contracted the build for about $125 per square foot and, perhaps more impressively, the home uses about the same amount of energy as one a third the size.

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I’ve pulled together projects, mostly homes, of all kinds — new, old, modern, traditional, etc — that we discussed in the last year.  These projects either obtained or sought LEED Platinum certification from the USGBC, and they’re some of the greener homes you’ll find most anywhere.  Click the links below for hours and hours of reading.

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