One-of-a-Kind Green Homes

Project #3 - Extreme Green

Builder/designer Jonathan Orpin’s personal home incorporates countless sustainable materials and techniques — reclaimed wood, rainwater harvesting and solar roof panels, to name a few. Photos: Loren Nelson Photography

Jonathan Orpin believes it’s his responsibility to push the limits of green building. He did just that with his personal residence in Portland, Ore., known as the Vermont Street Project. The 3,000-square-foot home has won such accolades as Designing with FSC Home of the Year and is a LEED Platinum candidate. Orpin, owner of New Energy Works in McMinnville, Ore., collaborated on the design with his colleagues, architect Ty Allen and interior designer Maxine Bromfield, who is also his wife.

Orpin has been designing and building timber-frame homes for 25 years and can attest to their longevity and high level of craft. The Vermont Street Project features a high-efficiency envelope of structural insulated panels and exterior-wall construction that minimizes thermal bridging. The ICF foundation and basement walls are made of form blocks that are a mixture of 85 percent recycled wood and Portland cement.

Orpin and Bromfield’s home occupies an infill site with an 18 percent grade down to the Vermont Creek watershed. The grade allowed a walkout lower level equipped with a recreation room, media room, laundry room, wine room, guest suite, and a storage area that can hold up to 4,000 gallons of harvested rainwater. The primary living areas and master suite are on the main level, and there’s another bedroom and playroom on an upper floor for the couple’s son.

All woodwork is either reclaimed or from FSC-certified forests. Nearly all the materials were sourced locally; have recycled, renewable, or environmentally friendly content; and were made in the U.S. The metal roof has a solar PV array that supplies 80 percent of the annual household electrical needs, plus two solar panels that preheat hot water.

All woodwork is either reclaimed or from FSC-certified forests. Nearly all the materials were sourced locally; have recycled, renewable, or environmentally friendly content; and were made in the U.S.

To stop thermal bridging and air infiltration, New Energy Works builds modified-stud exterior walls using housewrap; polyisocyanurate and cellulose insulation; 1x2 strapping; and OSB sheathing. Illustrations: Michael Hahn, New Energy Works