PLATINUM is the new Green: Thin Flats and Springfield Green Awarded the highest LEED-H Platinum Certification

PLATINUM is the new Green: The U.S. Green Building Council Awards Thin Flats and Springfield Green the highest LEED-H Platinum Certification for Sustainable Homebuilding

PHILADELPHIA, PA – On June 16, 2009, Philadelphia will go “double-platinum” as representatives from the U.S. Green Building Council award two Philadelphia development projects with Platinum-level certifications for their environmental performance. The event is being held at City Hall to signify the importance of these achievements to the City’s green development goals. Press tours of the individual projects will be offered following the 2 pm plaque ceremony.

Thin Flats, an eight unit residential project, has earned the first LEED-H Platinum Certification in the City of Philadelphia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Additionally, Thin Flats is the first LEED-H Platinum Certified project in the United States for its distinct building category. LEED-H (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Homes) is the internationally recognized, rigorous, third-party certification system for energy-efficient, environmentally conscious, sustainably constructed, healthy living and high-performance homes.

“The U.S. Green Building Council is proud to help celebrate Onion Flats’ commitment to greener living,” said Michelle Moore, Senior Vice President of Policy & Market Development, U.S. Green Building Council. “Their leadership – demonstrated at Thin Flats is at the national forefront of quality; and their example can help us all to live better by reducing our environmental footprint, cutting our utility bills, and coming home to a healthier place to live.”

“Thin Flats is a huge accomplishment for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the United States as a whole”, said Johnny McDonald of Onion Flats. “Thin Flats is a line in the sand for future developments. A LEED-H Platinum project can be done in the same time and does not need to cost more. We built better homes and sold them for the same price as non-sustainable homes. That was our experiment, and it has proved a success.”

Springfield Green, a pair of high-performance twin homes in Philadelphia’s historic Chestnut Hill, just received the highest possible certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, shattering the criteria for Platinum-level certification by nine additional points.

Springfield Green is the first new development project that owner George Woodward Company (GWCo) has undertaken in more than 80 years. Given their existing portfolio of architecturally significant properties, GWCo pledged that any new construction far exceed typical building standards—both in terms of design and performance. "Stanley and Svaha Woodward have been personally committed to conservation and sustainability for years, and they wanted to bring that passion into their daily business," says Tansy Foster, President of the George Woodward Company. "We knew that we had to do something special because of the project’s prominent location along Germantown Avenue in a historic neighborhood.”

GWCo was also looking for homes that would appeal to a broad spectrum of buyers—from single professionals with home offices to families with children and elderly couples. “One of the core principles of sustainability is that buildings should have both a long life and a loose fit to accommodate different types of owners as they enter various phases of their life,” says Scott Kelly, Principal of Re:Vision Architecture, the project’s Philadelphia-based design firm. “If a building isn’t flexible or durable, it isn’t sustainable.” At just 1,913 sq. ft., the open homes feel spacious due to abundant daylight, creative built-ins, indoor-outdoor connections, and an attention to how people flow through the spaces. “We were particularly excited to see so many LEED points come from the Exceptional Energy Performance category,” noted Jean Pierre Brokken, Project Designer with Re:Vision Architecture. The project coupled passive design strategies, such as optimizing daylighting and creating an innovative air-tight thermal envelope with active systems such as 275 foot standing-wells for the geothermal heat pump for heating and cooling.

“We were on pins and needles to see this project start leasing in the throes of an unexpected economic downturn,” confesses Jennifer Rezeli, Principal of Re:Vision Architecture. “By all appearance, it was the wrong time to undertake any development project but these homes were the right design, right size, and right location to have them all leased within hours of their first showing prior to the end of construction. The project’s high-level LEED-Platinum rating validates the actual green performance of the homes and their quick occupancy validates that today’s consumers have a growing appetite for this kind of project.”

About LEED® for Homes (LEED-H)
LEED® for Homes is a third-party certification system for high-performance green homes. Developed and administered by USGBC, LEED for Homes awards points to projects in seven categories of environmental performance: Location & Linkages, Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Indoor Environmental Quality, Energy & Atmosphere, Homeowner Awareness, and Innovation and Design. Homes can become LEED-H; Certified, Silver, Gold, or Platinum.