Cannon Beach Cottage by Rich Elstrom Construction earned the NAHB’s Green Project of the Year award in the Custom category. Photo courtesy of architect Nathan Good, AIA, IIDA (Salem).

Atlanta — The 2005 National Green Building Award winners were announced during The National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) seventh annual National Green Building Conference in March 2005, which highlights environmentally friendly, cost effective home building concepts as they move further into mainstream home building.

“Green building is a way of life for these award winners,” said Ray Tonjes, chairman of NAHB’s Green Building Subcommittee and a homebuilder from Austin, Texas. “Their commitment to green building isn’t just good for the environment, it is also a model for other builders, architects and programs to follow.”

Green Project of the Year: Custom: Cannon Beach Cottage, a 2,268-square-foot custom home built on the northern Oregon coast, took this year’s prize for the best use of green building techniques in the construction of a custom home. Rich Elstrom Construction used an integrated design team to help meet the goals of building a house that could produce more energy than it consumed.

Green Project of the Year: Production: Veridian Homes is Wisconsin’s largest homebuilder, and for every 10 homes it builds, it saves enough energy to light one additional home. Each of the 558 homes the company built in 2004 earned the state’s ENERGY STAR and Green Built Home certification.

Green Project of the Year: Affordable Multifamily: Perkins Eastman Architects won for its work in helping the Felician Sisters community in suburban Pittsburgh make its residence more livable for the aging congregation and benefit the school that shared the building.

Green Project of the Year: Luxury Multifamily: This honor was presented to Ecohousing and Poretsky Builders in Bethesda, Md. The company involved future residents in the design of the Eastern Village Cohousing Condominiums, which were converted from a four-story, U-shaped concrete-frame office building. The new residences maintain the same U-shape design, but added green features including a front façade with a sunshade and a “living” roof with plants to control rainwater runoff and provide thermal protection.

Green Project of the Year: Remodeling: A historic home remodeled by RSLawrence Construction in suburban Dallas is this year’s winner. The home was built in 1915 by noted Texas architect Hal Thomson. The remodeling project called for renovating and modernizing the main part of the original structure, while preserving its character. A few of the many green features include wood recycled from demolished portions of the house, use of insulated glass, and Icynene foam insulation.

Outstanding Green Marketing Award: All of the homes in WCI Communities Venetian Golf and River Club in Bonita Springs, Fla., were built using green techniques, and are undergoing certification by the Florida Green Building Coalition’s Green Home Standards. WCI promoted this community using a green building education center, Web site (www.wcigreen.com), trained sales staff and public presentations on the need for sustainable and green building.

Green Program of the Year: California Green Builder, a sub-group of the California Building Industry Association, was awarded for being user-friendly, quantifiable and one of the fastest growing programs in the country. The program started two years ago, and was overhauled after a few months after builders said that participation was difficult. Its redesign focused on meeting the program’s four goals of energy efficiency and maintaining waste, water and air quality. Two large production builders have agreed to build their 1,000-plus annual units to program standards.

Green Advocate of the Year: Group/Organization: The U.S. Department of Energy’s Building America private-public partnership develops energy solutions for new and existing homes by helping the industry adopt systems engineering approaches to home design and construction. Private sector partners contribute construction materials and labor costs for Building America’s research homes and communities. The program’s approach has been used in the design of 26,245 houses in 34 states.

Green Advocate of the Year: Builder: Pam Sessions is co-owner and president of Hedgewood Properties in Atlanta, which builds more than 250 homes annually. Hedgewood strives to adhere to smart growth planning and development concepts, while making use of green building techniques. Her customers want a complete living environment – not just a house, and Sessions builds communities that offer livable neighborhoods and a distinct sense of place.

Green Advocate of the Year: Individual: Mark Kelly is this year’s advocate of the year for his efforts to make sustainable design a fundamental aspect of residential development. As founder of Building Science Engineering in Harvard, Mass., Kelly has been the lead sustainability consultant on many award-winning projects, and had primary responsibility for developing the Energy Crafted Home Design and Construction Manual.

Green Advocate of the Year: Remodeling: The remodeling advocate of the year is Carl Seville, vice president of SawHorse Construction in Atlanta. In 2001, Seville lobbied Southface Energy Institute to expand EarthCraft House training to include renovations and chaired the committee that made it happen. Seville speaks regularly on green building, and for 20 years has taught the concepts of energy efficient building. His company has received six awards for green renovation projects, including four from ED+C.