On November 17, LEED AP and public relations committee chair of the Cincinnati chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council led a tour of Marburg Square in Oakley, which is building its new structures to LEED for Homes Silver standards.
Being built by the Ackermann Group at , the $25 million development offers both urban flats, with more than 1,400 square feet, and townhomes, with more than 1,800 square feet.
Prices range from $264,900 for the urban flats to $389,900 for the townhomes.
The new builds earn most of their LEED points for optimal energy performance (66 HERS index) and sustainable sites, due to the project density, site permeability, and landscape design.
This slideshow contains 26 photos.
Pictured here are the exteriors of Buildings 7 and 8 (urban flats), foundations and footings for Building 4 (urban flats), and an interior of a townhome unit that's currently under construction.
In part two, we'll take a look at two of the decorated urban flats models.
Hover over the slideshow to bring up the controls. You may stop the slideshow by clicking on the square "stop" button, allowing you to scroll through the photos at your own leisure. To get a better view, click on each image to enlarge to 640 x 480. Photos will open in a new browser window.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Inside Marburg Square, Part I
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5 comments:
This development just screams desperation. Although I have to say their numbers are up - about six months ago I saw only one real owner listed on the auditor's site, now there are about 5. But that first owner already sold and took about a 100K dollar loss.
I know it sounds cynical, but whenever I see the term "LEED" I pretty much stop reading any further. It's the new "global warming" -- wait, make that "climate change".
Interesting. They are constructing for maximum density in an area that was a vacant lot with a few houses that remained only a year or two ago. It's good to see that LEED certification is being applied here, and this is a great selling point to those who are interested.
Unfortunately, almost nobody wants "maximum density" at that price. And the "vacant lot with a few houses" was a neighborhood a few years ago, until it was bought by the developer and fenced in. Maybe it wasn't up to Hyde Park standards (it's in Oakley after all), but people lived there.
I have no problem with a developer buying up those houses and building something else. But Ackermann couldn't have picked a worse time to try and build very expensive speculative housing, and now they are simply trying to use the LEED PR scam to convince wealthy buyers that they should feel good about themselves for majorly overpaying for a glorified condo.
^ That brings up another issue I have with LEED. You get points for existing infrastructure. However, there is no penalty for bulldozing existing housing.
While I love that this didn't get built in a greenfield somewhere out in the sticks, there should be points lost (or some consideration) for tearing down structures that were habitable, especially when there were people living in them at the time the project was conceived.
Your "LEED PR scam" idea might not be that far from the truth. And what will be the selling point when damn near everything getting built is getting "green" certification?
If the first owner took a $100K loss can you imagine being a seller at MS now? The apartment style units remind me of a college dormitory.
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