The LEED for Homes certification program is embracing a variety of non-traditional projects, including a homeless shelter, the resurrection of a 200-year-old cabin and a modular home built by high school students.

Tulane University architectural students planned to renovate the New Orleans Family Center — a shelter primarily for women and children — prior to Hurricane Katrina. When the storm demolished the structure, Tulane professor of architecture Stephen Verderber decided to rebuild green. HomeAid, the country’s leading non-profit developer of transitional housing, funded the $3 million, 4,400-square-foot center. Construction began in June 2006 and families displaced by the hurricane are expected to take up residence this spring.

Geothermal heating and cooling; tankless water heaters; large, south-facing windows; reclaimed brick for all exterior paving, including those found on site; and cork and bamboo flooring may earn the shelter LEED silver certification. “There is an unprecedented opportunity to rebuild many of the city’s structures in a sustainable, efficient and environmentally friendly way,” says Verderber. “The family center sets a standard for rebuilding in New Orleans. This is truly the ‘silver’ lining in an otherwise devastating situation.”

In Bigfork, Mont., 50 miles north of Missoula, a cabin dating back to the 1800s will serve as the welcome house for a private green housing community. Saddlehorn Development purchased the cabin in the Midwest and plans to reassemble it and attain a LEED platinum rating. The builder is reusing each of the cabin’s solid, 16-inch oak beams and other materials to form a new 1,400-square-foot, two-story home for the caretaker of a 330-unit community. The house will sit at the base of the development, with residents encouraged to leave their vehicles at the gate and take an electric cart or horse to their property.

The unique home will feature graywater harvesting, which uses wastewater from sinks and drains for irrigation purposes, and cogeneration, which involves one power station simultaneously generating electricity and heat. “We’re getting more bang for that fossil fuel dollar,” says Casey Dudley, LEED consultant on the project.

Students at Charlottesville Albemarle Technical Education Center in Charlottesville, Va., are seeking a LEED silver rating for the modular home they are creating right behind the high school. Jason Ritter, carpentry instructor at the school, approached architect Charles Hendricks in the spring of 2006 to design the two-bedroom, two-bath house measuring 1,300 square feet. Dubbed Hinge House, the home features insulated hot water pipes, metal roofing, spray foam insulation and energy efficient windows.

“I don’t think the students understand the magnitude of the project,” Hendricks says of the first LEED home built by teenagers. The CATEC Foundation will sell the house at the end of the school year and moved it to the buyer’s property.

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