Belles Townhomes: SF’s First LEED Platinum Multi-Family Housing

The <a href="http://www.thepresidiolandmark.com/belles_townhomes.html" target="_blank">Belles Townhomes</a> are San Francisco's first LEED Platinum-certified multi-family housing units, and they are the only newly constructed residential buildings in the city's historic <a href="http://inhabitat.com/2010/09/23/presidio-reonovated-hospital/">Presidio district</a> (and National Park!) Designed and built in a modern vernacular by <a href="http://inhabitat.com/2010/02/24/kierantimberlake-wins-competition-to-design-new-us-embassy-in-london/" target="_blank">Kieran Timberlake</a> and LivingHomes, the seven unit residential building is located right next to the <a href="http://www.thepresidiolandmark.com/" target="_blank">Presidio Landmark</a> on some of the most beautiful land in the city. With solar panels on the roof, energy monitoring and efficient appliances inside, <a href="../tag/rainwater-collection" target="_blank">rainwater collection</a> and a lot more, we're pretty jealous of whoever gets to move in here.

The Belles Townhomes were designed by Kieran Timberlake for modular home manufacturer LivingHomes and developed by Forest City.

The seven unit multi-family building is located in the Presidio National Park right next to the Presidio Landmark, an adaptive reuse project that turned a hospital into an apartment building.

Each unit is three stories and comes with three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a garage, patio, bike storage and a rooftop deck.

Inside, the homes are designed with low or no VOC carpets, paints or adhesives and a high concentration of recycled content materials.

Over 90% of the interior spaces receive natural daylighting.

The multi-family housing building received LEED Platinum certification and is the first multi-family housing building in San Francisco to do so.

This is the first time that LivingHomes and Kieran Timberlake have built a multi-family housing building, and they plan on doing more in the future.

Each home also features an energy dashboard to monitor energy usage in hopes that residents will become more aware of their energy usage and lower their footprint.

Rainwater is collected from the roof and stored in an underground aquifer to minimize stormwater runoff. Drought tolerant plants are used in the landscaping.

Each home also has a roof top solar system to provide some of the energy needed.

Energy-efficient appliances, lighting, radiant floor heating, tight insulation and low-flow water fixtures all help reduce the project's environmental impact.

The first and second floor feature the garage, storage and the three bedrooms and bathrooms.

The third and fourth floor feature the living room, kitchen and the rooftop deck and grilling station.