Construction is now underway on three sustainable houses being built in Syracuse’s Near Westside neighborhood.

The homes were designed by three winning architecture firms who submitted plans to the ‘From the Ground Up: Innovative Green Homes’ sustainable design challenge. The competition was held in January, and the groundbreaking ceremony for the building sites was held Oct. 21. A completion date for the homes was set for late spring 2010.

The purpose of the competition was to affordably build a single family home that uses green technologies and green building techniques while still being affordable, said Jacob Brown, a research fellow with UPSTATE and an administrator for the competition.

The competition was sponsored by Syracuse University’s School of Architecture, Home HeadQuarters, Inc., a company that renovates houses in Syracuse, and the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems, which promotes the development and use of green technologies.

Ana Fernandez, an environmental scientist for the Center of Excellence, worked closely with the competition.

‘There is a lot of national and international attention to see how these houses will perform in the area. All of the houses have some innovative design such as the latest technology for heating and cooling,’ Fernandez said.

The School of Architecture’s UPSTATE center assembled experts in sustainable architecture and design to collaborate on the construction of the homes.

Brown said the competition was about creating an innovative design that would spur other energy efficient projects.

‘The idea is that if you build something new and it has the power to draw people and investments, then you only have to build a few things because it will generate future developments,’ Brown said.

Home HeadQuarters, Inc., will be managing the development and construction of the homes, Brown said.

The project is a part of the Syracuse Art, Life and Technology District, a branch of the larger multimillion-dollar Near Westside revitalization project called the Near Westside Initiative, Brown said.

The houses will be LEED certified and use a heat recovery ventilation system, which captures warm air and prevents it from leaving the house, Brown said.

Each winning firm has a different approach to designing their houses:

The ARO/Della Valle Bernheimer house will be insulated so that heat produced from appliances like refrigerators and hairdryers, as well as body heat, will keep the house warm without a furnace. This heating system is typical in some sustainable houses popular in Germany, Brown said.

The Onion Flats house will have a solar water heating system in which water-filled tubes on the roof capture sunlight and transfer the heat to the floor of the house, where it will circulate in a convection-like motion.

The Cook + Fox house will have a structural insulated panel – a piece of Styrofoam sandwiched in between two pieces of wood, which keeps in the heat.

Each competitor was given a budget of $150,000 to encourage lower construction costs and more innovative design techniques.

As for who will buy the homes, Maarten Jacobs, director of the Near Westside Initiative, said he hopes they bring in environmentally minded owners.

‘We want to revitalize the community as a whole. These houses are artistically minded, and we’re hoping the folks who want to buy them are interested in revitalizing the area and being a part of that creative community,’ Jacobs said.

Brown said the houses should especially appeal to young people and artists because of their affordability.

‘In order for the city to be strong and a desirable place for people to come, it needs to have a diversity of neighborhoods. Creating an exciting and diverse neighborhood this close to downtown can only help to strengthen the city as a whole,’ he said.

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Published on October 27, 2009 at 12:00 pm