Eastern Village Cohousing (EVC) in Montgomery County, Md., proudly opened its doors in 2004. Besides achieving LEED-NC Silver Certification, ECV has won numerous awards (list below). Perhaps most importantly though, the residents of EVC appreciate the benefits of living in a green building.

The EVC building is an adaptive reuse of an abandoned office building originally constructed in the 1950s. The original parking lot was transformed into a green space that includes benches, sculptures, a patio and native vegetation. EVC’s design incorporates such features as ground-source heating and cooling, low-emitting finishes, rapidly renewable flooring and a green roof. Multifaceted commissioning was employed to ensure best practices and compliance with design requirements during the construction phase.

The environmental impact of EVC is further reduced by its unique organizational structure: cohousing communities such as EVC constitute small-scale neighborhoods providing balance between personal privacy and community living, wherein neighbors share in community activities, decision-making, work and play. Residents have been involved from the beginning of the project, helping to plan and program EVC, and actively participate in the management of the community. Private apartments contain all the features of conventional homes, but residents also have access to common facilities such as kids’ play areas, guest rooms, an exercise room, workshop and library. Because cohousing communities feature such extensive common areas, the individual units are much smaller.

Residents, many of whom contributed to the design process, are also actively involved in the management of the facility and grounds, including “green housekeeping,” extensive recycling programs, bicycle sharing and low-impact maintenance strategies. The majority of unit residents own one car or less (no parking is provided onsite), and the resident group has agreed contractually to install only ENERGY STAR appliances—both initially and through a replacement policy.

Post Occupancy Evaluation

To further quantify the environmental benefits of Eastern Village, members participated in a post-occupancy evaluation. The survey measured occupant satisfaction in an anonymous, invite-only questionnaire that covered a wide range of questions, including their commuting and recycling habits, satisfaction with the original finishes and systems, and the overall comfort level of their home. Of the 56 condominium units at EVC, two were unoccupied at the time of the survey. Forty-five units completed the survey, achieving an 80 percent response rate.

The survey reinforced the individual member’s commitment to environmental responsibility. Eighty-three percent of respondents indicated they select green cleaners. Of those who’ve repainted their walls, 64 percent selected low-VOC paint. Two-thirds of members either use public transportation, bicycle, or walk to work.

Most interestingly is how much residents recycle: All respondents stated that they do practice some form of recycling. As EVC is located in Montgomery County, Md., the building was required to report the amount of waste recycled. According to the 2005 recycling report, EVC recycled approximately 55 percent of its waste, which compares favorably to the 12 percent recycling rate for multi-family residences in Montgomery County and the 30 percent national average (EPA 2001).

The survey results substantiated the benefits of green benefits on occupant satisfaction. Eighty percent of respondents felt that the ground source heat pump maintained desired temperatures, which is the goal of ASHRAE Standard 55-2004. More than 86 percent of respondents believe that their utility bills are as low, or even lower, than they expected. Seventy-eight percent were satisfied with air quality and daylighting levels. More than 90 percent of respondents were satisfied with the sound privacy of their unit—a benefit of the existing 6-inch thick concrete floor slabs. Most importantly, more than 95 percent of respondents would recommend green building to anyone looking for a new home.

Lessons Learned

Photo copyright Dan Cunningham.

When your future residents are committed to environmentally friendly living, install more bike racks. Although the developer provided the number of bike racks recommended by the LEED rating system, most residents at EVC own at least one bike—many own several. The community is currently looking into installing additional bike storage throughout the building.

Programmable thermostats are not appropriate for ground source heating and cooling systems. There is quite a bit of discussion in the geothermal community regarding the benefits of adjusting the thermostat when using a ground source heat pump. The best-case scenario for adjustable thermostats is that the thermostat should not be adjusted more frequently than once every eight hours—the adjustment often causes the back-up heat source (usually electricity) to start. Ideally, thermostats should never be adjusted.

Research green finishes and materials before specifying them—while bamboo achieves full height in three years, it does not reach full strength for seven years. Unscrupulous bamboo vendors select immature bamboo, which is very soft and susceptible to damage; damaged bamboo flooring received the most complaints in the EVC survey.

When selecting lighting, choose attractive fixtures. While EVC features florescent lighting, it is not to the taste of most members—of those members who have replaced their fixtures, more than half have selected less-efficient incandescent or halogen lighting.

Conclusions

Post-occupancy evaluations can offer valuable lessons to every project team. Ideally, all green buildings can undertake a post-occupancy evaluation so that the team can learn about the actual performance of innovative products, technologies and techniques. At Eastern Village Cohousing, residents overwhelmingly understand the benefits of living in a green building, and appreciate the consistent unit temperatures and lower utility bills of a ground source heat pump system. The additional daylighting from larger windows and improved indoor air quality from low-emitting finishes were also noted. Green buildings are better buildings—both for the environment and for those who live in them.

Eastern Village Cohousing Awards

• LEED-NC Silver Certification
• Environmental Design + Construction’s 2005 Excellence in Design Award for Multi-use Residential (see ED+C September 2005)
• National Association of Home Builders 2005 Green Project of the Year
• 2006 Green Roof Award of Excellence