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Belles Townhomes: SF’s First LEED Platinum Multi-Family Housing
Posted By
Bridgette Meinhold
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Architecture,Education |
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LivingHomes collaborated with Kieran Timberlake to design the seven townhomes for the Presidio, making this their first foray into building multi-family residences. The project was developed by Forest City and is situated adjacent to the Presidio Landmark. The project is made up of seven three-story attached units overlooking a shared central green in front of a wooded area. Each three-bedroom, three-bathroom unit includes its own garage, patio and rooftop deck.
A solar system on the project’s roof helps reduce each unit’s energy bill, while Energy Star lighting and appliances along with super tight insulation and radiant floor heating work to reduce energy demand. Each home is also equipped with specially designed trash and recycling chutes on every floor to encourage recycling as well as an energy dashboard to help residents see how much energy they are using in real-time. Rainwater is collected on the roof and stored in an underground aquifer, all landscaping is drought tolerant, and low-flow fixtures are used throughout.
Steve Glenn, CEO of LivingHomes, said in a press release, “The Presidio is an incredible protected space in the middle of San Francisco, and it’s critical to build new buildings there in a way that minimizes the impact on natural resources. We hope Belles Townhomes set the bar for future projects there. It’s also our first foray into multifamily housing, which is arguably the most responsible kind of housing. We hope to make this a major focus for LivingHomes.”
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The Belles Townhomes 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 Presidio district (and National Park!) Designed and built in a modern
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The Belles Townhomes were designed by Kieran Timberlake for modular home manufacturer LivingHomes and developed by Forest City.
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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.
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Each unit is three stories and comes with three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a garage, patio, bike storage and a rooftop deck.
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Inside, the homes are designed with low or no VOC carpets, paints or adhesives and a high concentration of recycled content materials.
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Over 90% of the interior spaces receive natural daylighting.
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The multi-family housing building received LEED Platinum certification and is the first multi-family housing building in San Francisco to do so.
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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.
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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.
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Rainwater is collected from the roof and stored in an underground aquifer to minimize stormwater runoff. Drought tolerant plants are used in the landscaping.
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Each home also has a roof top solar system to provide some of the energy needed.
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Energy-efficient appliances, lighting, radiant floor heating, tight insulation and low-flow water fixtures all help reduce the project’s environmental impact.
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The first and second floor feature the garage, storage and the three bedrooms and bathrooms.
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The third and fourth floor feature the living room, kitchen and the rooftop deck and grilling station.
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