The 100K house – get small, get cheap, get green

Despite carrying the “preservationist” label (which seems to carry a load of negative stereotyped baggage along with it in these parts) I’m also a huge fan of modern architecture. New construction design that mimics or replicates an earlier architectural style looks fine if you are walking down Main Street at Disney, but looks absolutely ridiculous in the real world. Design has been a topic covered before on this blog. New Construction needs to look new.

Our focus in these parts should be our existing housing stock. Building reuse is an absolute no-brainer. It is not rational to destroy resources that can be adapted and reused. This is true for entire structures and the elements that make up the structures (yes, even windows which are filling up our landfills at an alarming rate).

There is, however, plenty of room in our center city neighborhoods for new construction. This project (The 100K House) caught my attention recently. The project leaders have a conviction that "green" and "affordable" can go hand-in-hand. They are actually building that conviction.


The design is modern. It’s green. It’s LEED Platinum certified. It’s affordable.

How about we do it here?