Comments on: First LEED Platinum House

By: Alyson

Alyson — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:32:33 +0000

I’m just curious about whether this house was built on a vacant lot, which would be surprising for this older, fairly dense neighborhood. If it was built following a tear-down of an existing house, then it is questionable whether it is really environmentally superior to any other home.

By: Metro Green

Metro Green — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:34:31 +0000

Correction:
Per metro green’s press release, this is the first Leed Platinum home in Virginia, not the nation. It is technically 4 bedrooms with a loft - convertible to a fifth bedroom.

Thanks for all the comments though. You are a lively crowd!

By: bliz

bliz — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:24:25 +0000

But Maia - it’s a hybrid!!! Haha. Talk about greenwashing.

By: Maia M

Maia M — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:17:13 +0000

LOL that despite its designation this house still features the car at the front. That’s green living!

By: Vik

Vik — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:25:03 +0000

Personally, whether it’s platinum or not isn’t important. It’s a great accomplishment for sure, but if we could get homes at silver even, that would be great. I don’t think the diminishing returns given the money you’re putting in to achieve platinum would be worth it for most people. The basic things you can do to make it silver wouldn’t be so cost prohibitive but still yield a more environmentally friendly and energy efficient home.

By: Steven Sorrel

Steven Sorrel — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:09:42 +0000

This house is in North Arlington where the single family homes are all priced around $1 million, I am sure if they built it out in Sterling it would be half the price, the point is that for a similar price to other real estate in an area, they can now build a home that is environmentally friendly and sustainable.

By: Matt R

Matt R — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:52:22 +0000

I disagree with the comment that this level of ‘green’ can be ‘affordable.’ This house does not proove that point - at $1.175 MM, I think it is far from affordable. I believe the median sales price for the DC metro area is around $270k.

We need more data points to gauge affordability.

By: tom veil

tom veil — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:05:00 +0000

Nice. Now we just need someone to make a LEED Platinum house that is also a brick townhouse, so that we can get on with our life and build “green” houses that don’t take up huge amounts of land or aesthetically assault the neighbors.

By: DCBlogs » DC Blogs Noted

DCBlogs » DC Blogs Noted — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 11:00:02 +0000

[…] metropolitan areas than ours (no offense, Takoma Park,) however, the DC area is the first to have a private residence earn a Platinum LEED Certification. Thanks, DC Metrocentric for the […]

By: John K.

John K. — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 04:33:16 +0000

This house first listed at about $1.2-$1.3 million, but has dropped substantially. Still, there’s little yard, only 3 bedrooms and the location isn’t ideal. It’s going to be on the market a while.

By: Glenn

Glenn — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:08:44 +0000

I applaud the eco bonfides of this house, and am ok with much of the design - but that porch is busted, and looks like a shack in the process of succombing to nature! Nasty. All they had to to was make the leading edge of the porch horizontal, for God’s sake. Any design genious want to explain this nonsense to me?

By: selophane

selophane — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 23:57:35 +0000

I find it upsetting that while the first LEED platinum house is in Arlington, the architects are in Portland, Maine. It is not like there is a dearth of green conscious designers in this area.

By: CitizenZ

CitizenZ — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 23:48:43 +0000

We need more of this happening everywhere.

In being the first, Living homes got a leed platinum residential rating as early as 06.