Southern California is adding to its growing collection of uber-green LEED Platinum homes with the recent completion of the Project7Ten House. While the original renderings of this design looked promising, nothing inspires us more than seeing green buildings actually get built. The photographs of this recently constructed green house far surpass the original renderings we saw a few months back, and we are thrilled to see such an elegant eco-house for sale in LA.
Thanks to Preston over at Jetson Green, we’ve learned of the recent completion of this gorgeously green Venice home. Designed last year by architect Melinda Gray, the
Project7Ten House has drawn a star-studded crowd of potential buyers. So if you’re in the market for a house in Venice, California, and don’t mind the attention of the paparazzi, you might consider making your way to 710 Milwood Avenue.
The Project7Ten House is the first conventionally constructed LEED Platinum house in California (as opposed to all those prefabs we are always talking about), proving that being green is easy and can take on many forms. If the Energy Star appliances, the solar panels roof, the locally sourced green materials, and the gray water recycling systems, among its many green aspects, aren’t enough to draw a buyer in this tight market, perhaps the accompanying 18-month lease on a Ford Escape Hybrid will pique your interest. Personally, the use of Kirei throughout – in the beams and the stairs – is enough to make our mouths water and consider a move to warmer weather.
+ Project7Ten House
+ Project7Ten Website
Via Jetson Green
I visited this house in person last month and was unfortunately turned out to be somwhat of a let down in my opinion. Aside from the clever technological features (e.g. solar panels), I felt the attention to details in the exteriror and interiror was shoddy, lots of wasted space in some areas where in others it felt very crammed. In comparing this to the MKLotus prefab, the design of the lotus house was much more intelligent.
I hope to visit all the innovative homes available in California and elsewhere that I can. I’m sure some will be better than others in design and execution, just as in all fields. My biggest concern is that currently the cost of building green far exceeds the cost of standardized stick-frame construction that developers know how to price. Until initial construction costs can beat the wasteful building practices we currently use, there will be little incentive for profit-oriented builders to employ non-standard construction methods, regardless of the benefits to the end user and the planet. I would like to see a breakdown of costs in broad strokes (e.g.: siting, shell, casework, appliances, electrical/mechanical systems, finishes, landscaping, other) to give a sense of the gap in costs between the typical tract home and green construction. Then we can address cost/benefit scenarios in each broad category to try to promote green construction where the benefits exceeds standard methods and slowly evolve the construction industry to maximizing green throughout their projects. Some good examples are tankless water heaters, PEX tubing and sips that are gaining popularity among builders primarily because the public is demanding them, but also because the developers can price them in their software take-off programs now. Until we address the economic hurdle of affordable/sustainable construction, we are unlikely to see more than ‘concept’ houses for a long time. Great website. Looking forward to owner-building a green home myself that we are currently designing where I cam implement whatever I can from the resources available here. Happy Thanksgiving.
I would lilke to know which skylights were used. victorialillian@earthlink.net
which skylights were used in the venice house which opened up according to heat sensors to let heat excape.
thanks
victoria