Enthusiastic owner-builders, Stefanie Parrott and Dixon Beatty “take their sustainable building seriously while approaching the daily grind of their owner-built project with a real sense of humor,” says their architect, Geoffrey Holton. The owners’ green goals started with the purchase of a Victorian house in the Oakland Point Historic District. Their premise is that reinvesting in this transit-friendly urban neighborhood (two and a half blocks from BART) and restoring deteriorating old housing stock are good environmental strategies.

 

As a design/build architect and remodeling specialist, Maurice Levitch of Levitch Associates had always helped clients select design elements and materials based on economic factors and aesthetics. Recently, the combination of a client’s request that he learn more about sustainable building and an employee’s suggestion that he get certified as a green builder prompted Levitch to take a closer look at green building philosophies and methods.

 

Built 1908, Michael Boal's 2,200-square-foot Berkeley home was “remuddled” a few times over the decades, but still retained much of its traditional style. Boals brought in David Grubb Construction to rebuild the back of the house while preserving its nearly 100-year-old spirit. “Green building principles were used from literally top to bottom for this project — from the photovoltaic panels on the roof down to the high flyash concrete foundation,” says Grubb. 

 

Berkeley residents Kristin Leimkuhler and Jeffrey Wilk hired McCutcheon Construction to modernize their 1894 Victorian while preserving the building’s traditional exterior. Raising the house by three feet allowed them to transform a six-foot-high unfinished basement into a contemporary wheelchair-accessible first floor, doubling the home’s size to 2,815 square feet.

 

At Cottonwood Place in Fremont, nonprofit housing developer Eden Housing has created a beautiful, healthy community for low income seniors. This innovative development, which includes 98 private apartments, was constructed using green building and Bay-Friendly landscaping methods and incorporates a number of features to ensure its long-term energy efficiency and sustainability.

 

In addition to earning the Bay-Friendly Rated Landscape designation, Cottonwood Place achieved a high score from the GreenPoint Rated green building rating program. 

 

Harmon Gardens provides 15 studio apartments for one of the Bay Area's most underserved populations, transition-age youth. The community provides a permanent home where residents can develop independent living skills while receiving supportive services.

 

Harmon Gardens earned the Bay-Friendly Rated Landscape designation for its sustainable landscape design. A permeable cobblestone pathway leads from the building entrance to a private courtyard garden, where contoured planting beds act as bioswales that capture 85% of average annual stormwater runoff.

The Dona Spring Municipal Animal Shelter, a beautiful new facility at the north end of Berkeley's Aquatic Park, replaces a well-worn shelter built in the 1950s. Named in honor Dona Spring, a former Berkeley Councilmember and longtime advocate for animal welfare, the new shelter is highly visible from the freeway and more accessible to visitors and volunteers.