LEED for Homes Takes Step Forward in Asheville, NC

Here in New York, condemnation proceedings started yesterday out in Brooklyn in connection with Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards development. Opponents to the project object to, among many other things, the scale of the development in relation to the surrounding neighborhood. (Personally, I object to the theft of my beloved Nets from New Jersey, but obviously somebody's loss of home or business to eminent domain is a bit more important than basketball). Anyway, I thought of Atlantic Yards when I read about the Weirbridge Village project in Asheville, North Carolina. A $100 million, sixteen building, twenty-one acre project, residents at the neighboring Crowfields condominiums objected to the project's density. Over those protests, though, the City Council approved rezoning for the project contingent on developer Chip Kassinger meeting LEED for Homes certification. Even if I weren't an environmentally conscious developer, I might want to play the green building card in order to convince a city official to give my project the green light. This seems to be what happened down in Asheville. Only one multi-unit project - 53 Standish Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts - has been certified thus far under the LEED for Homes Pilot Program. (Look for my reaction to the BD+C White Paper's chapter on green building in the residential market soon). 53 Standish Street was only a three unit project, so Weirbridge's 336 units should be a good test for the Pilot Program (in addition to a 1,550 unit project in Las Vegas which recently registered with the Pilot Program as well). Architect Niles Bolton and Associates of Atlanta, Georgia believes that either a Silver or even a Gold rating for the project is possible. Green features include retention ponds to clean and cool rainwater, a site that sits near existing infrastructure, and building orientation to maximize sunlight and shade.

• U.S. 25 Condos Push Envelope on Environmental Design (CITIZEN-TIMES.com)
• Nation's First Multi-Unit LEED-Certified Building: The Contemporary 53 Standish Street (Cambridge, MA) (Jetson Green)