Green Building Elements

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The Meyer Company of St. Louis, Missouri, is quietly undertaking a green building experiment called Patrician Place, the results of which could have far reaching implications in the field of green building. In partnership with the St. Louis County Office of Community Development and Architect; Garen Miller, Inc., The Meyer Company is building ten homes under three different green building programs, gauging the energy efficiency of each. After a year of testing the energy efficiency of the homes of Patrician Place, an affordable housing development for lower income families, St. Louis County will have a benchmark for future housing projects.

Of the ten homes in Patrician Place, one will be certified LEED-H platinum, one will be certified gold in the NAHB’s Model Green Building Guidelines, and seven will be ENERGY STAR rated homes with slight variations, such as with or without SIPs, or foam insulation as opposed to spray fiberglass, to name a couple. The tenth will be the control house, built to standard, non-green building practices. The layouts of the homes will be identical. Click here for the spreadsheet of materials used in the different houses.

In addition to testing energy used with the help of local utilities companies, project coordinators will survey home owners to factor in their family size and energy practices. I will update here if and when the results of the Patrician Place study are made public.

Photo: Nick Jackson