Building Green
Today, with gas prices rocketing upwards, the news that the icecaps are melting at unprecedented rates, and the future of “green” fuels still up in the air, it seems that some people have gotten the idea and are building green from the ground up.
Terramor, a planned estate in Orange County, a place called Ladera Ranch, 1,280 homes and townhouses are being built in 12 neighborhoods. The upscale homes, which range from $500,000 to more than $1 million and come in Cape Cod, Spanish traditional and cottage styles, among others, have roof-mounted photovoltaic panels, recycled insulation, built-in kitchen recycling areas, drip landscape watering systems and electrical vehicle recharging outlets in the garage (in partnership with DaimlerChrysler, the developers also offer Terramor residents a discount of up to $1,000 on a Global Electric Motorcar purchased at a local auto dealership).
Nevermind the price tag, a lot of that can be chalked up to California prices, but the builders are clearly taking a note from new developments and applying them now while they can (without laws telling them to do so). Most of the “greenery” is straightforward, the solar panels, the kitchen recycling areas, the landscape watering and even the electrical vehicle outlets, have been around for a little while now. It IS good to see them applied.
Terramor will become a new guiding light for the “green” house. It’s not perfect, but it IS an attempt to lower monthly bills and to live well at the same time. At the same time, many residents of Santa Monica believe that homes, and public buildings, should be more energy-efficient, and this housing development is a step in that direction.
The article in the LA Times, agrees that many of these developments have not got started because of the high prices of green and recycled materials, but noted that prices are coming down making it more cost-effective to plan such large communities, especially as such green building materials make it to the mainstream.
As the article points out:
In Southern California, the leader in promoting green building is undoubtedly Santa Monica, which offers building grants for LEED-certified buildings, has Green Building Design and Construction Guidelines (available at http://www.smenergy.org) and supports a Green Building Resource Center for the public and an annual green building tour to coincide with its Alternative Building Materials Expo in the spring.
Read more at the LA Times »
There are currently no comments on this thread.