The US Green Building Council (USGBC) announced the recipients of its annual Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Homes Awards, which recognizes projects, architects, developers and homebuilders who have demonstrated leadership and innovation in the residential green building marketplace.
“Homes represent a critical piece of the buildings industry and our daily life,” says Rick Fedrizzi, CEO and founding chair, USGBC. “We applaud these amazing honorees for their significant contribution to greening the residential sector by implementing strategies that positively impact the environment and enhance the health and well-being of their occupants.”
The LEED Homes Award winners include multifamily, single family and affordable housing projects and companies that have prioritized incorporating sustainability within their projects in 2015. This year, for the first time, the awards also recognize the “LEED Homes Power Builders,” which USGBC developed to honor an elite group of developers and builders who have exhibited an outstanding commitment to LEED and the green building movement within the residential sector. In order to be considered as a Power Builder, developers and builders must have LEED-certified 90 percent of their homes/unit count built in 2015. Homes at any LEED certification level—certified, Silver, Gold or Platinum—were eligible for consideration.
LEED Homes Award Winners:
Project of the Year: The Woodlawn, Portland, Oregon
Developed by SolTerra and designed by Abbasi Design Works, The Woodlawn is a LEED Platinum, 18-unit mixed-use apartment building constructed with primarily reclaimed and highly renewable materials and featuring 4,500 square feet of ecoroof, an outdoor roof terrace, and 1,100 square feet of living wall siding.
Outstanding Single Family Project: The Taft School Faculty Residence, Watertown, Connecticut
Winning team: The Taft School, Trillium Architects, BPC Green Builders, Steven Winter Associates
The Taft School faculty home serves as a residence and learning lab for students. It is Connecticut’s first building to achieve LEED Platinum certification under the Building Design and Construction rating system for Homes using the new and more stringent LEED v4. The design and construction process is used as a teaching tool for science classes. The students monitor the energy use and there is also a vegetable garden, chickens and a rain garden on site as part of a comprehensive sustainability site.
Outstanding Single Family Builder: Frankel Building Group, Houston
Frankel Building Group completed 28 custom homes, all built to LEED for Homes standards, 26 of which have or will be designated as LEED-certified, in 2015.
Outstanding Affordable Builder: National Church Residence, Columbus
National Church Residences (NCR) integrates home and supportive services for seniors and vulnerable individuals. Its vision is to continually improve communities by transforming the way seniors and vulnerable populations live and thrive. Since achieving LEED Platinum for Buckingham Place in 2009, NCR has pursued LEED as their choice of green building certification on more than 15 projects.
Outstanding Affordable Project: Brookside Village Housing, Farmington, Maine
Winning team: Brookside Partners LP; Amec Foster Wheeler Environment & Infrastructure—Herbert Semple; AIA Architect/Project Manager; Pinkham & Greer Consulting Engineers—Tom Greer, PE; H. E. Callahan Construction Co.—Jeff Ohler
Brookside Village comprises 32 one-bedroom units of affordable elderly housing. This LEED Platinum project has net-zero energy usage and is a low-income, federally subsidized housing project. All materials selected and systems designed in the building are highly sustainable and extremely energy-efficient, enabling developers to meet the prime project goal—to provide the comfortable living environment necessary for the elderly residents.
Outstanding Multifamily Project: Tilley Lofts, Watervliet, New York
Winning team: Redburn Development; Kirchhoff-Consigli Construction; Harris A. Sanders, Architects, P.C.
The 80,000-square-foot Tilley Ladder Warehouse—once the oldest ladder manufacturing facility in the country—sat mostly vacant over the past 10 years. In spite of its neglected condition, the structure, conveniently located in Watervliet’s Port Schuyler neighborhood, in close proximity to a park and bike trail and easily accessible to the interstate, presented an ideal site for energy-efficient apartments. Through collaboration with Sustainable Comfort Inc., the warehouse was converted into 62 luxury loft-style apartments and achieved LEED Platinum.
Outstanding Multifamily Developer: Forest City Realty Trust Inc., Cleveland
Forest City Realty Trust has achieved LEED certification for many property types, including office, retail, multifamily and entire neighborhoods. They certified their first of 25 total LEED projects in 2006, and since 2008, have certified eight multifamily projects containing more than 2,600 units. Half of those certifications were achieved in 2015. Currently, Forest City has 11 multifamily projects containing more than 4,000 apartment units pursuing LEED certification.
LEED Homes Power Builders (*Represents a company that also won a LEED Homes Award):
- AMLI Residential
- Bijou Properties
- Bronx Pro Real Estate Management
- Buckingham Companies
- Cottage Home
- Fore Property Company
- Forest City*
- Frankel Building Group*
- Gerding Edlen
- Habitat for Humanity (Charlotte, North Carolina)
- Habitat for Humanity (Dallas)
- Habitat for Humanity (Kent County, Michigan)
- Habitat for Humanity (Matthews, North Carolina)
- Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services
- JCB Homes
- John Marshall Custom Homes
- McGuyer Homebuilders Inc. (MHI)–Austin, Texas
- McGuyer Homebuilders Inc. (MHI)–Dallas, Fort Worth, Texas
- McGuyer Homebuilders Inc. (MHI)–San Antonio
- National Church Residences*
- Sullivan Brother Builders
- The Dinerstein Companies
- The Hudson Companies Inc.
- Uptown Rentals
- RPM Development Group
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