Image via hbbuildinganddesign.comFairmount neighborhood resident Sharon Price Slusher has completed the ultimate home improvement project. Slusher’s Philadelphia row home (N. 27th Street) has received LEED Platinum certification from LEED for Homes, the highest rating of the LEED system. The home is the city’s first “rehab” home to be awarded this rating.
Slusher’s home construction project wasn’t initially intended to meet LEED Platinum credentials; she simply wanted to meet her aspirations for sustainable living in “an inviting, comfortable, well-designed home,” she says.
Final construction of the home was completed in Summer 2010, although the renovation process had begun in November 2007.
The home is designed to blend in, while also featuring a “fresh take” on the row home and is oriented to maximize natural light use. Along with two vegetative roof gardens, the home has solar panels that provide almost half of the home’s electricity; a water system that recycles water from showers and sinks; captured rainwater for flushing toilets and watering vegetation; and a Smarthome system that controls lighting, HVAC and solar blinds to improve energy efficiency.
