We are proud to announce that our most recent residential project, House of Earth & Sky, has just received LEED Platinum certification, the highest of the four LEED rating levels.

The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), is the foremost program for buildings, homes and communities that are designed, constructed, maintained and operated for improved environmental and human health performance. A home can achieve LEED certification after undergoing a technically rigorous process, including the incorporation of green strategies to achieve efficiency and healthy indoor environments.

Situated atop a pre-existing plateau in the San Francisco Bay Area, the design of this home celebrates the intersection of earth and sky. One enters below grade and ascends vertically through the ground to arrive in a series of glass pavilions, anchored by rammed earth walls and sheltered by kite-like floating roofs.

The owners set ambitious sustainability goals from the outset of the process, proposing LEED Platinum certification and Net Zero Energy, both to guide their own responsible decision-making and to be a model for their community. With that as a starting point, the project strove to integrate sustainability performance, high craft, sculptural forms, and architectural expression into the design such that they became one inseparable whole.

“We spend 90 percent of our time indoors, so where we live greatly impacts our health and wellbeing,” said Mahesh Ramanujam, president and CEO, USGBC. “By achieving LEED certification, House of Earth & Sky has become a place that a family will truly love to call home, not only because it’s energy and water efficient, but because its designed with the health of its inhabitants in mind.”

We would like to thank all the members of our collaborative design team for their invaluable contributions to this project:

Contractor:
Ryan Associates

Interiors:
Gary Hutton Design

Landscape Architect:
Lutsko Associates

Structural Engineer:
GFDS

Lighting Designer:
Eric Johnson Associates

Mechanical Consultant:
Integral Group

Geotechnical Engineer:
Rollo & Ridley

Civil Engineer:
Lea & Braze

Rammed Earth Consultant:
Rammed Earth Works

LEED Consultant:
Gilleran Energy Management

Rainwater & Graywater Consultant:
Watersprout

Specifications:
White & Green Spec