Baltimore, the City of Firsts, is now home to one of Habitat for Humanity's first award-winning sustainable housing showcases of 2011.
The
renovated rowhome at 1810 Laurens Street in the Sandtown-Winchester section of West Baltimore is the first house in the entire city that meets the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum standard, and it is the first Habitat for Humanity house in Maryland to achieve LEED Silver standing. Jonas Risen of the Ziger/Snead architecture firm led a team that incorporated renewable energy, efficient water usage techniques, and high indoor air quality standards into the existing rowhome dimensions.
By working with Baltimore's most prevalent form of housing, the Laurens Street project serves as a model for how low-cost housing can incorporate modern, green features to alleviate "sick building syndrome" and help raise home values in economically depressed areas. "This project shows how much people care about sustainability in affordable housing," Risen says. In addition to being a showcase Habitat house with a family set to move in, "the Greenest House in Baltimore" also won the USGBC Maryland chapter's People's Choice award, meaning that the architecture community is impressed by the house and will take lessons from its design elements.
Writer: Sam Hopkins
Source: Jonas Risen, Ziger/Snead