HousingZone

The $100,000 Green Home

By Nick Bajzek, Products Editor -- 6/1/2009 2:35:00 PM

The Postgreen team had one mission: to build a LEED Platinum home for $100,000 in hard construction costs. Love it or hate it, the company pulled it off — and they tracked it all online.

The 100K House project, located in a resurgent area in Philadelphia, is Postgreen’s first development project. The project’s aim is to prove that green construction can be affordable if properly designed and executed. The target construction cost (labor and materials only) was based on the price for the smaller of the two homes, a the corner lot house with a $120K price tag.

Brian Phillips, AIA, was the architect behind the home. He met the developer in early 2007, and the team came up with the project later that year. After that, he says, it was a quick turnaround. The area was a perfect area for a cheaply-done house — what the company likes to call a $100,000 house on a $300,000 lot. “The existing neighborhood is sort of a recovering industrial area. It’s being repopulated by the artist and first-time home buyer crowd. We took a very modern approach, and we definitely didn’t want chase that faux-historic look,” says Phillips.

The Details

Here’s a snapshot of how they kept the cost down while being sustainable:

• The home has been greatly simplified by reducing the footprint.

• There’s nothing particularly fancy or flashy about the interior — it’s a basic layout designed for pure efficiency.

• The company bridged the design with extremely cost-effective green building materials and methods.

• It was mostly infill with great public transportation access, which also contributed to LEED points. “We wanted to build in an urban area since it’s inherently a more ‘green’ thing to do. It’s walkable. There’s plenty of public transportation. We’re just re-using what was there,” says Nic Darling, the company’s marketing manager.

• The land was affordable. “Land prices were right where we needed them to be to get away with building a house that cheaply,” Darling says.

Local Reaction

Feedback on the homes from local citizens was generally positive. “As you’d imagine, the architecture is significantly different than what the locals have seen before. What we found is that discomfort of the level of architecture goes away once people actually walk through the house,” says Darling.

The project is also fairly remarkable in the level of detail President Chad Ludeman and his team shared via their blog. You can read the posts here: http://www.100khouse.com/.

Darling says another row of houses is currently under development. Plans for 20-plus homes are also in the works.

@100KHouse Tweets

The company put every detail of the project online while keeping a blog and Twitter account, www.twitter.com/100KHouse. Here’s a sampling of their latest Tweets:

• SIPs delivery #1 for the Passive Project today. I just wish we were ready to install them as well. 3 hrs ago

• 15 minutes till a tour shows up and the 2nd floor is a disaster. The downside of living in our show home. 1 day ago

• RT @nicdarling: New art in the 100k on loan from Jon Olivieri. This is very cool stuff. http://yfrog.com/0bc7oj 2 days ago

Project Details

# of units – 2

Unit names – 100K House (infill) + 120K House (corner)

Style of units – loft townhome

Square footage – 1,150 (100K) + 1,270 (120K)

Beds/baths – 2, 1 respectively

Levels – 2

Projected sales price – $200,000 to $250,000

Green Aspects

Certification – LEED Platinum

Energy Star-certified

Solar – solar thermal hot water

Water – rainwater collection, low-flow, dual-flush

Heating – radiant in floor

Air conditioning – radiant, passive & ERV

Lighting – CFLs

Insulation – SIPs

Finishes – low or no VOC

Landscaping – ivy “green wall,” drought tolerant and 100 percent permeable

The Team

Developer – Postgreen

Architect – Interface Studio Architects

Builder – Manor Hill Contracting

LEED provider – MaGrann Associates

Energy consultant – Zero-Energy Design

Sustainable cabinetry – Pappajohn Woodworking

Sales team – Stokes Group

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