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Green Building Case Studies

East Towson LEED Green Building Project
 
In the spring of 2000, the Office of Community Conservation began working with the East Towson community to achieve their goals of re-development and revitalization. The redevelopment project includes seven new construction units and five renovated units. In 2008, the Office of Community Conservation initiated a Green Building Program.

The program is designed to transform the way houses are built in Baltimore County to houses that are healthier to live in and more energy efficient and affordable to operate. As a demonstration project to show the application of green building designs to affordable housing, three new green homes are being built in East Towson.

Energy Efficient and Green Technology Building Template Guide for the State of Maryland

The project implemented an Energy Efficient and Green Technology Building Template (PDF) in partnership with selected Maryland Homebuilders. The project was funded by the Maryland Energy Administration. There were two primary initiatives in this project:

• The first task was the construction of three new townhouses, using Building America energy-efficiency guidelines, to reduce total energy consumption by 50 percent compared to the 1993 Model Energy Code (MEC) or 30 percent total source energy consumption when compared to the typical 1990’s construction (Building America Benchmark Definition 12/29/04). Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse (SBER) provided the three townhouses for the case study associated within this project.
  
  
• The second component was the rehabilitation of five rowhouses that exceed the total energy performance of the 1993 MEC by 30 percent. This equates to a total source-energy savings of 20 percent when compared to the 1990’s construction. The five rowhouses were rehabilitated by the Chesapeake Habitat for Humanity (CHfH).

Green Building Template

Steven Winter Associates was also responsible for recommending green features to be included in both the rehab and new construction prototypes. For the rehabs, the green recommendations were based upon the Green Building Template: A Guide to Sustainable Design Renovating for Baltimore Rowhouses (PDF).

This document was prepared by TerraLogos for The Maryland Department of Natural Resources in December of 2001. This template lays out several packages that help facilitate green building practices. The packages are referred to as "light, medium, and deep green."

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Revised January 30, 2009