Award Category: Builder, Custom or Small Speculative, less than 10 homes

Winner: Krekow Jennings

Project: Lakeshore NZE Residence

Description: Krekow Jennings built a nearly 10,000SF net positive energy luxury lakeshore home. Hoedemaker Pfeiffer LLC’s design combined high performance building, meticulous craftsmanship, materials, and architecture of the PNW. Passive House Standards for air tightness were achieved with an astounding 0.057 CFM/SF at 50 pascals. Environmentally sustainable materials and practices were prioritized across its design and construction. Resulting in a home that attained net positive energy production, Built Green 5-star, LEED Platinum, and a HERS rating of -27. This project contradicts the perception that luxury homes and sustainability are mutually exclusive.

Award Category: Builder, Small Production, 10 to 100 homes

Winner: Homestead Community Land Trust

Project: The Village Gardens

Description: The Village Gardens project brought affordability and environmental sustainability together to expand homeownership opportunities in the Central District to income-qualified households. Developed through a partnership of Homestead Community Land Trust and Edge Developers on surplus land provided by the City of Seattle, sixteen three-bedroom, energy-efficient homes were certified to Built Green 4-Star and Evergreen Sustainable Development standards.

Award Category: Builder, Large Production, over 100 homes

Winner: Isola Homes

Description: Isola Homes is a locally owned company dedicated to building homes that embody the evolving needs of homeowners and communities. They are committed to providing quality contributions to Seattle’s neighborhoods by embracing sustainable design and focusing on environmental stewardship. Over the past year, they have continued to focus on maximizing the sustainability of their homes by including amenities like EV conduits for future charging capability, community bike racks, AeroBarrier technology, drought-tolerant landscaping, and energy efficient lighting.

Award Category: Builder, Small Multifamily, less than 50 units

Winner: Lake Gardens

Project: Lake Gardens Apartments

Description: Lake Gardens built a airy and elegant ten unit building in Seattle’s Greenlake neighborhood were new to Built Green certification, but embraced the process with their verifier and earned their first 4-star project. They enhanced Lake Gardens Apartments’ environmental sustainability through natural and man-made strategies. Integrated gardens include underground drip systems, large bio-planters and varieties of blooming plants. The building utilized high efficiency windows, solar panels on the roof, recirculating hot water system, heat pump water heaters, air penetration sealing, and insulation.

Award Category: Builder, Large Multifamily, 50 to 150 Units

Winner: Kamiak Real Estate

Project: Sora Apartments

Description: Kamiak Real Estate develops multifamily assets in Seattle's urban neighborhoods. By concentrating on neighborhoods with existing transportation, walkability, and a strong community fabric they decrease the impact of development. Sora Apartments features a modern 54-unit boutique multifamily building located in Seattle’s University District. The project replaced a former single-family home, achieving a density of nearly 500 units per acre with no parking, adding to the inherent sustainability attributable to high density development.

Award Category: Builder, Large Multifamily, over 150 Units

Winner: Emerald Bay Equity

Project: Iron Flats Apartments

Description: Emerald Bay Equity constructed a 289-unit development in the Roosevelt neighborhood of Seattle, easily visible from I-5 north. The three-building development was completed in the summer of 2021. Iron Flats offers an abundance of public and private green spaces in addition to curated amenity spaces ranging from rooftop gardens to fully equipped fitness facilities.

Award Category: Builder, Remodel

Winner: The Cottage Company

Project: Ida Pearl House

Description: The Cottage Company’s latest remodel took inspiration from the home’s original 1928 construction and by the 19th century farmhouse ‘compounds’ of clustered worker cottages. The 4-star certified Ida Pearl House is located in the Olympic Hills neighborhood of Seattle. In addition to the remodel the builder also increased density by adding a brand-new Built Green 4-star certified DADU.

During the remodel the project team sought to preserve as much of the existing cottage as possible including elements like the clear fir and oak flooring with inlay, mouldings, arched doorways, divided light windows, stone fireplace, and ‘Dutch’ front door. Finishing the existing basement and built-up portions of the roof increased its total livable area. Read the Built Green case study.

Award Category: Built Green Advocate Private Sector

Winner: Dan Wildenhaus and BetterBuiltNW

Description: Dan Wildenhaus and BetterBuiltNW have been completely immersed in the discussion of what is required to create High Performance Buildings and the technologies that operate within them. They have contributed considerable hours to help answer the hard questions, create tools and resources for builders to accelerate adoption of high-performance building practices, partner on Washington State Energy code proposals, and explaining the energy code in practical terms. Built Green deeply appreciates this long-standing partnership.

Award Category: Built Green Advocate Public Sector

Winner: Greg Davenport, Mitsubishi Electric Trane HVAC US

Description: Greg has worked with high performance builders, Built Green, and the HVAC industry in the Pacific Northwest to help promote energy efficient VCHP systems to the high-performance residential construction market around the country. They are a routine ally for Built Green and its members to achieve cost-effective high performance and efficient mechanical designs, provide valuable education, and energy code guidance.

Award Category: Built Green Pioneer

Winner: Linda Pruitt, The Cottage Company

Description: Linda has championed diversity of housing types and the cottage community movement in our region for over 20 years. Using her historical-preservation lens she strives to honor a neighborhood’s character while increasing density with a yes-in-my-backyard attitude. She has continually contributed her expertise to city planning and community leadership groups as a resource for new housing choices, green building, and sustainable development. She currently serves as a member of the Cascade Land Conservancy Cascade Agenda Cities Advisory Board, and as an Executive Committee member of the Northwest Architectural League/ARCADE.

Award Category: Project of the Year

Winner: Salish Way III Co-Op Cottages

Builder: Lopez Community Land Trust

Description: To date, Lopez Community Land Trust has developed 54 permanently affordable cooperative cottage homes on this project. The latest phase provided 4 new homes and was constructed during the height of the 2020 pandemic with homeowners, volunteers, contractors, all working together. As lumber prices soared, increasing some construction materials by 200%, over 2,462 hours were contributed by homeowners and local volunteers. Each cottage is just under 700 square feet and cost the builder roughly $314/SF. The cottages utilized Structural Insulated Panels (SIPS) for ease of construction and to accommodate social distancing. Additional features include air sealing characteristics; passive solar and cooling design; induction ranges; Heat Pump for indoor heating/cooling; LED lighting; and Douglas Fir milled on site for reverse board and batten siding. The cottages are connected to a rainwater catchment system for irrigation and will soon be connected to a community solar system as part of our net-zero energy goal. To learn more about this community, read the Built Green case study.