Traditional Neighborhood Development and LEED Go Hand in Hand
In the 1980’s, New Urbanism catapulted into the national consciousness. Today, a site called The Town Paper lists hundreds of Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) Neighborhoods from all over the world. And this surge of interest in mixed use planning may be helping pull environmental building practices into the spotlight.
One of The Town Paper’s TND neighborhoods is NorthWest Crossing in Bend, Oregon. NorthWest Crossing is the largest mixed use community in Oregon; it won a 2007 Development of Excellence Award from the Urban Land Institute of Oregon/SW Washington, and was recognized in 2006 as the Most Successful Development in Oregon by BUILDERnews Magazine.
Like most TNDs, NorthWest Crossing is a walkable community. It provides easy access to the Bend Area Transit bus system, and is focused on preserving the natural landscape. Its progressive planning practices extend to green building. Every home in NorthWest Crossing is required to be Earth Advantage Certified (for a discussion of Earth Advantage, see “What Does it Mean to Build Green?”). One of NorthWest Crossing’s commercial properties (which will house the New La Rosa Authentic Mexican Kitchen) recently earned LEED-CS Silver certification — a designation that was actually higher than the standard certification originally expected. According to David Ford, general manager for NorthWest Crossing,
To receive a higher-level rating from LEED than we were initially pursuing was exciting for everyone involved in this project. This certification just reinforces our commitment as a community, on both the residential and commercial sides, to sustainability and environmentally friendly practices.
The building also won the Grand Award for Green Building in the 2008 Awards of Excellence administered by the National Commercial Builders Council (NCBC) of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).
Consumers’ rising interest in traditional neighborhood design coincides with their rising interest in sustainability, so developers are making green design part of their package. And harnessing the collective action of entire communities should make it possible for an increasingly broad range of building types to go green.
Photo Credit: NorthWest Crossing
Related posts:
http://greenbuildingelements.com/2008/02/21/green-communities-part-1-new-urbanism/
http://greenbuildingelements.com/2008/02/19/the-triple-bottom-line-a-new-paradigm-for-developers/
sustainability is the number one concern of home buyers..number two is energy bills and number 3 is
the cost of gas. as the green expert told the nahb more than 8 yrs ago green building was the future. and what did the nahb do? built more than 7 million
homes than fall in value every day. and now the nahb lobbied congress for a billion dollar tax credit after the longest housing run up in more than 150 yrs.
as the green expert informed the world 8 yrs ago the nahb has hurt and continues to hurt america,
a dinosaur in sheeps clothing.in addition the nahb program lowers the bar from the leed program.
Great article, Kristin… as someone who lives in a historical urban neighborhood (Old Urbanism?), I find it hard to imagine ever going back to a traditional suburban setting… it’s not just greener, but more convenient…
green, you’re right; the NAHB is, in fact, going head to head with LEED by issuing its own set of standards. (I discovered this fact while researching my post, and in fact did a whole new post on the topic today: http://greenbuildingelements.com/2008/05/08/can-sprawl-be-green/).
Thanks for this!
I am glad to see a list of some great neighbourhoods in Canada. Just today, I found out about a great project in the works called Now House. They’re looking to start retrofitting the millions of war-time bungalows across the country. http://www.nowhouseproject.com/
I like the idea of using what we have before building new. Keeps our link with the past while ideally saving resources and encouraging creative solutions.
Thanks, Denise; I will definitely check out the Now House project. I like those kinds of things, too. In my region, we have old workers’ cottages from the coal mining industry which have been re-invented as shops and restaurants. They’re great places to go.
[...] Traditional Neighborhood Development and LEED Go Hand in Hand [...]
[...] Traditional Neighborhood Development and LEED go Hand in Hand [...]