Cincinnati Green Home Tour Series

The Cincinnati Green Home Tour Series’ goal is to educate the general public about sustainability with tours of LEED, Passive House, WELL, Living Building Challenge, and other significant Green Buildings.

The Tour Series Sponsors’ donations support the local chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. Cincinnati’s LEED tax abatement has increased the number of LEED projects in the city and those projects can receive points for tours and public awareness.

Tom Warner, Architect and homeowner, shares his design inspiration with our guests.

Benefits to the homeowner/building team
• The tours provide Public Awareness LEED points on sustainability in everyday tasks
• Showcasing the home’s unique sustainability features
• Marketing for the builder or architect
• By promoting household environmentally sound practices to transform the way homes are designed, built, and operated enabling healthy, prosperous and environmentally and socially responsible living.

Chuck Lohre homeowner and work-crew from sponsor, Third Sun Solar, shows off the final product – a 10 kW Solar array which will completely power our half of the 3,500 sf duplex.

What does the owner need to do?
• No cost to the homeowner
• Tour information and invitations are promoted in the USGBC email newsletters, sponsor sites and social media
• Physical tours are limited to 20 guests. Virtually we have had 30-40 register.
• The online meeting format reviews a slide show of the project and concludes with a virtual tour by the owner and technical features.
• The LEED APs or Green Raters on the project assist in presenting and Q&A.
• Videos of past virtual tours are available at the links below.

Contact Chuck Lohre, 513-260-9025, chuck@lohre.com to host a tour or click here to be put on the tour announcement email list.

Sponsors

1st National Bank, Alex Laber

Cincinnati Modern/KW Advisors, David Smith

Green Cincinnati Education Advocacy, Chuck Lohre

Linden-Kamp Real Estate Group, Edward Lindenschmidt

Solar Energy Solutions, Julie Jones

Kokosing Solar, Caitlin Garrity

2024 LEED Home Tours

• TBD from 11:30 am until 1:30 pm; LEED Platinum Residence, Terrace Park, Ohio, address provided after registration. Join us for an open-house style tour of this beautiful LEED Platinum residence in the Terrace Park neighborhood of Cincinnati. These tours are developed and hosted by volunteers on our Southwest Local Leadership Team and provide education on environmentally sound building practices that transform how buildings are designed, built and operated.

Attendees may self-report one continuing education unit of LEED General credit. Please visit this website to learn more about GBCI’s self-reporting process.

Past Tours:

• April 8, 2023 from 11 am until 1 pm; Hand Residence, will be Passive House and LEED Platinum certified, 4580 Colerain Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45223, Mt. Airy. With this home owner/architect Scott Hand, AIA took an extremely challenging building site and designed a custom, modern home that is one of the most sustainable residences in the region. Since the site consists of a steep hill, the architects oriented the tallest roof due south. The foundation is a three-sided retaining wall, creating a walk-out basement that is still 80′ above the street below. Designed to Passive House and LEED Platinum standards (certifications pending) the entire shell is insulated far beyond the typical building code minimums, including continuous exterior insulation that wraps from below the basement slab up over the entire roof. Let’s look at the foundation construction in detail. Out of the ground, the foundation is essentially just three concrete walls and a floor. The footprint of the house is a simple rectangle, and this is important architecturally because it’s easier to insulate and seal (also, the foundation is literally the starting point for the rest of the structure, so the simpler that this can be, the easier it is for the construction team to build it square, plumb and true). Below grade, things aren’t quite as simple. This steep site required the walls and footings to be designed as structural retaining walls, and we had to excavate down to ensure the base was sitting on solid bedrock. All in all this home is an architectural marvel.” From the architect’s blog page.

Attendees may self-report one continuing education unit of LEED General credit. Please visit this website to learn more about GBCI’s self-reporting process.

Photo gallery from the tour April 8, 2023

• February 24, 2023, 4:30 – 6:30 pm;  LEED Platinum Home for sale in Blue Ash, 4617 Miller Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45242. This sleek, modern LEED Platinum Certified home is gut-rehab on a 1/4 acre lot is walking distance to downtown Blue Ash. The tax-abated home is extremely energy efficient and features a 5-kW solar array, zoned HVAC, Zehnder Whole-Home ERV, a AeroBarrier system and a durable metal roof and siding. It also boasts 9ft+ ceilings, abundant natural light, beautiful kitchen with a pantry, several bathrooms and a luxury owner’s suite, as well as a lower level with a family room, home office and guest bedroom. This home proves that an existing home can become both beautiful and energy efficient.  Here’s the Zillow Listing page

Attendees may self-report one continuing education unit of LEED General credit. Please visit this website to learn more about GBCI’s self-reporting process.

• November 11, 2022, 5 – 6:30 pm;  LEED Green Building Tour, Contemporary Arts Center, Downtown, Cincinnati

Join us for the next session of our Green Building Tour Series which will feature an in-person tour of the soon-to-be LEED certified Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) in Cincinnati, Ohio. This session is FREE for members and open to all. Read more about this project here.

This Green Building review of the CAC will also present the preliminary discovery for the building’s 20th Anniversary in 2023. There will be a major show focused on the career of Zahad Hadid, her academic work leading up to her early built work including the CAC, her first work in the US, which won her the Pritzker Architecture Prize.

Following the tour, the group will meet at BRU Burger Bar for additional networking time (BRU Burger Bar, 41 E 6th St, Cincinnati, OH 45202).

SPEAKERS
MaryEllen Etienne, USGBC’s Market Transformation and Development team (ENC Region)
Chuck Lohre, Green Cincinnati Education Advocacy

Continuing Education – You can self-report this session for 1 credits of GBCI General CE.

• February 19, 2022, 11 am – Noon – Myers-Heckman Residence Virtual Tour, OTR LEED Platinum Renovation – Deep energy retrofit, and addition to an 1870 townhouse in Cincinnati’s historic Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. The design seeks to respect the historic architecture while allowing the new interventions to be distinctly contemporary — all while significantly upgrading the performance of the home. The retrofit reduces the home’s energy use 68% from existing conditions and eliminates on-site combustion of fossil fuels. A 9.9kW solar array produces a majority of the home’s energy needs and with a battery backup system normally powers the home until about 1 am. The home also utilizes ultra-efficient plumbing fixtures and manages 65% of runoff from the roof on-site — demonstrating what is possible even in dense, historic urban areas.

•  October 25, 2021, 2 until 3 pm, Evanston – 3244 Fairfield Ave., Mixed Use, Multi-Family, Planning for LEED Silver – Virtual tour of a mixed-use, multi-family project currently under construction. Formerly a carry-out and six apartments, Envisage Architecture LLC, Sarah Kleiner, AIA, LEED AP., is reconfiguring the entire building to be 10 one-bedroom units, a studio apartment, and the offices of Envisage Architecture and Roost Builders on the first floor. The tour will demonstrate the Insofast insulation installation process. It will also discuss how the tax abatement for commercial properties and the city of Cincinnati’s VTICA (voluntary tax incentive contribution agreement) point system connects with the project’s LEED certification. It is across the street from where their LEED Platinum homes will be sited. Watch the virtual tour recording.

GBCI Continuing Education: You may self-report 1 CE of GBCI LEED General credit after you have attended this session (live or on-demand). Go here for more information on self reporting.

• September 16, 2021, 3 to 4 pm – Hamrick Residence Virtual Tour – Evanston, Cincinnati, OH, LEED Platinum home with solar panels and many other energy efficient features. View the YouTube Recording of the tour.
From Alicia Blum article for the USGBC News. “As a native of Germany, when Irene Hamrick moved to the Cincinnati neighborhood of Evanston she sought to utilize the sustainability practices familiar to her in Europe. Hamrick chose her living location based on its proximity to bike lanes and commissioned a contracting firm to compose a LEED certified building plan.
Unique strategies utilized for LEED certification include the use of solar panels, an electric car charger, and passive solar heat. With south facing windows and materials that absorb heat during the day and disperse the heat at night, passive solar heat is an effective means of heating a home with thoughtful design decisions.
Additional strategies include a heat pump for central heating and water heating, wi-fi scheduled window shades that raise and lower based on available light, façade sunshades that prevent sun exposure in summer and allow the sun to enter in winter, and an induction stove. The induction stove transfers heat directly to the cooking pan instead of heating stove elements, thus less energy is used and less heat is lost to the surrounding environment.
Irene Hamrick’s residence is LEED Platinum certified; and while she has occupied the home for over a year, she continues to make plans for additional sustainability practices.”

GBCI Continuing Education: You may self-report 1 CE of GBCI LEED General credit after you have attended this session (live or on-demand). Go here for more information on self reporting.

• April 10, 2021, 11 am till Noon – Urban Stead Cheese, a cheese shop in Walnut Hills, Cincinnati, OH, has been awarded LEED BD+C New Construction Silver by the US Green Building Council. Sol design + consulting provided energy efficiency consulting and green building certification services for the project, build by Terrex. USGBC article on Urban Stead Cheese tour. Photos by Alicia Blum: Head cheesemaker and co-owner Scott Robbins holds a truckle of Urban Stead’s Street Ched, their aged clothbound cheddar, Owners Andrea and Scott Robbins of Urban Stead Cheese in their Cincinnati, Ohio shop. View a recording of the virtual tour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beQgb2ITuOk

GBCI Continuing Education: You may self-report 1 CE of GBCI LEED General credit after you have attended this session (live or on-demand). Go here for more information on self reporting.

•  February 20, 2021, 11 am until Noon, Enriching Spaces Virtual Tour – Forest Park, OH, This office furniture and interior design firm’s location is the ninth WELL Platinum Certified project in the USA and first in Ohio. Here’s a link to the virtual tour https://youtu.be/Mqub8bavI6k

• January 9, 2021, 11 am until Noon, Menninger Residence Virtual Tour, Mt. Adams – New construction, LEED Platinum home projected with amazing minimal design by owner Renan Menninger of RM interiors. Incredible views of Cincinnati and a cantilevered “Irresistible Stairs.” James Warden with Green Building Consulting will be attending as the Green Rater on the project. Recording https://youtu.be/iUL-f0fgg_E. Read the LEED for Public Awareness article https://green-cincinnati.com/their-new-leed-platinum-home-was-a-blast-to-quarantine-in/

GBCI Continuing Education: You may self-report 1 CE of GBCI LEED General credit after you have attended this session (live or on-demand). Go here for more information on self reporting.

• Oct 10, 2020, Noon until 2 pm, Fickas Residence Virtual Tour – Union Township – Nancy comes from a long history of sustainable homes, “My grandfather built has entire house from shipping pallets for his family of 9. He worked at a door manufacturer and brought home the scrap wood to complete the house and build the furniture. My father worked there to and did the same thing to build my Mother a new kitchen. The home is at Aberlin Springs https://aberlinsprings.com/  the First Agri Community in the midwest, with Farm-to-Table Living, located near Morrow/South Lebanon. Here’s a link to the tour’s virtual slide show https://www2.slideshare.net/ChuckLohre/usgbc-ohio-green-home-tour-series-fickas-residence-101020 and here is a link to the recording of the virtual tour thanks to Ken Fickas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdw-BGlo8o0.

• May 9, 2020, 6 pm on Webex, Vawter Residence Virtual Tour – Sayler Park, Winding Walks LEED Home Subdivision. This LEED Gold home has these features: Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV), tankless water heater and lawn irrigation that has a sensor to shut off the irrigation if it is raining. They also have a pool installed which will use salt chlorination.

The homeowner Wanda Vawter and LEED Rater, James Warden, will lead the tour and answer your questions. The home is part of the Winding Walks Subdivision and benefits from the Cincinnati LEED tax abatement designed to increase property value, bring home owners into the city, building energy efficient housing, and stimulating community revitalization.

6 to 6:05 pm Gather in the Webex portal, 6:05 pm Chuck Lohre introduces the Ohio Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council, sponsor The Sustainability Partnership of Cincinnati, and homeowner Wanda Vawter. 6:15 pm Wanda will share their design inspiration and the features of the homes’ living room, kitchen, exterior and pool area. 6:45 James Warden will review the home’s LEED features and benefits. 7 pm Chuck Lohre will announce the raffle Clifton Market gift certificate winner.

GBCI Continuing Education: You may self-report 1 CE of GBCI LEED General credit after you have attended this session (live or on-demand). Go here for more information on self reporting.

• March 14, 2020, 10 am until Noon, LEED Silver Home for Sale Tour – Mt. Adams, 949 Monastery St., Cincinnati, OH 45202. The best of sophisticated luxury. Commanding views. Top of line design and finishes and Silver LEED tax abatement. 3 Bedroom, 3 bath. Amazing roof top terrace for entertaining or just watching night views on a quiet nite. Learn more.

• Feb 8, 2020, 10 am until Noon, Hughes Residence Tour – OTR, New, gut renovation, Terry Boling designed, LEED Platinum home, in OTR.

• Jan 11, 2020, 10 am until Noon, LEED Home for Sale Tour – Riverside, 4400 sf Platinum Certified, home site. There is no charge for this tour.

• Oct 19, 2019, 10 am until Noon, Russo-Butler Residence Tour – Mt. Lookout – LEED Platinum near net-zero new construction home with pool. Read the LEED for Public Awareness article we wrote for the home.

• Sept 21, 2019, 10 am until Noon, Shaw Residence Tour – Northside, Cincinnati, OH, new construction 1500 sf footprint infill. To be LEED Certified. Age in place and a model for affordable home design.

• April 20, 2019, 10 am until Noon, Nelson/Doench Residence Tour – Northside, LEED Gold new construction with native and adaptive landscape. Read the article we wrote for their “Public Awareness” Point. Confirmed.

• Mar 16, 2019, 1 until 3 pm, Plevyak Residence Tour – OTR, Potential LEED Platinum renovation with solar panels and geothermal. 1 to 3 pm.

• Feb 16, 2019, 6 until 9 pm, – Boulter House Tour – Clifton, After 15 years living in the Boulter House, Janet and I have moved to another home in Clifton. The home is especially beautiful after staging it for sale, to close in Feb.

The planned USGBC Green Home Tour for the month of February was canceled so I thought this would be a good chance for my Green Building friends to get together and experience the home one last time.

The Boulter House was the reason I got involved with the USGBC. After purchasing the home in 2003, it rekindled my interest in architecture. I was studying at the University of Kentucky when I took a job at my father’s advertising agency 41 years ago, never completing my degree.

After touring many other Wright homes and attending conferences, I wondered what would Wright had evolved to if he was still practicing. After attending a lecture by Jerry Yudelson, hosted by the local Society for Marketing Professional Services chapter, I learned about LEED. I was hooked on Green Building as the evolution of Wright’s Organic Architecture Principals and started to volunteer with the local USGBC Chapter. I got my LEED AP to be able to understand the USGBC and in the process made my office one of the highest ranking LEED projects in the region.

Learn more at the home’s website www.wrightboulter.com. Photos by Susan Rissover.

• Jan 19, 2019, 10 am until Noon, Zeff Residence Tour – Riverside, LEED Platinum possibly Net-Zero home on the Ohio River with solar panels and geo-thermal, Weis Development. LEED Public Awareness article.

• Sun, Nov 18, 2018, 1 to 3 pm – Warner Residence Tour, Oakley. – New construction by owner/architect Tom Warner. A simple, single level, three bedroom home located on a large triangular shaped lot in the “Arts District” of Oakley. Designed on an east-west axis with almost all of the living area windows to orient to the south with views of the outdoor garden and entertainment areas. The home’s front façade will be clad in blue-green bright stainless steel and Zalmag flat lock panels. It will hopefully receive a LEED Gold certification using sustainable site points, photovoltaic solar roof panels, energy efficient building envelope, low flow fixtures, draught tolerant and food producing landscaping and energy efficient HVAC system strategies.

• Sat, Sep 29, 2018, 10 am til Noon – Fletcher / Johnsen Residence Tour, College Hill. Solar panel installation is scheduled for the 1st quarter of 2018. The house is passive solar and has geothermal heating/cooling. It is super insulated and air sealed with an Energy Recovery Ventilator to provide plenty of fresh air. Two 65 gal rain barrels are hooked up to the gutters. Should be certified LEED Gold in the Spring of 2018.

June 16, 2018; 10 am till Noon: Alscher Hancock Residence Tour in Clifton – This new construction LEED Platinum home is designed for “aging in place” with “minimal utility bills.” The double-butterfly roof conceals over 5,000 watts of solar photovoltaic capacity, and the small front yard conceals three 250-foot geothermal wells serving the 4-ton system that not only heats and cools the house but provides all of its hot water as a natural by-product. Learn more.

• Sun, Apr 29, 2018, 10 am til Noon – Winding Walks LEED Home Subdivision Tour, 403 Parkview Cir., Sayler Park, Cincinnati, OH 45233. Is consistent with the goals of the City of Cincinnati with regard to increasing property value, bringing home owners into the city, building energy efficient housing, and stimulating community revitalization. The venue for April’s tour has changed. This is a model home so we are publishing the address, but please let us know you might stop by, Chuck Lohre, 513-260-9025, chuck.lohre@greencincy.wpmudev.host. Learn more about Winding Walks.

• Sun, Mar 18, 2018, 10 am til Noon – Woeste / Mahle Residence Tour, OTR. LEED Gold. They acquired the property in 2012 directly from a Baptist Church (the church had moved to another location a few years earlier). The church had renovated the three buildings in the 1960s—they connected the three buildings and enclosed the garage with cinderblocks and used the garage as their sanctuary. The first and second floor rooms in the former row houses were used as classrooms, office space and a nursery. The basement contained an industrial kitchen. The 1960s era renovations were not sympathetic to the historic nature of the buildings. Decorative stone lintels over the first floor windows were chiseled off the front and a huge metal screen was installed over the second floor of the 127 building. The garage building featured a cross made of glass block and faux-pebble white paneling. Hopeful to achieve LEED Gold certification through a combination of factors, including, solar panels, low-flow water fixtures, draught-tolerant landscaping, blown cellulous insulation, a high-efficiency furnace and other features. Masthead “Featured” photo is of street view.

• Sat, Feb, 17, 2018, 10 am til Noon – Ryan Residence Tour, OTR. “The folks at Architectural Digest should check out Jack and Martine Ryan’s place in Over-the-Rhine. It has the “wow” factor the magazine features. The Ryans’ stunning, 6,000-square-foot, certified LEED Gold home is the product of four creative minds coming together as one. Jack Ryan is a Staten Island-born and reared New Yorker and career Procter & Gamble engineer/executive with the kind of pragmatic skills required to co-manage his first new-build home. Martine Ryan is an artistic Frenchwoman and long-time director of business affairs at the University of Cincinnati whose love for the European-city lifestyle steered the 2014-married couple away from the northern suburbs toward Over-the-Rhine. Together they created a bright, sleek and spotless living space,” from Brent Coleman’s article for WCPO Channel 9.

• Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 10 am til Noon – Johnson Residence Tour, OTR. Planning for LEED Platinum. First tour, near finished construction. Part of a common wall, two small home row house arrangement. The project had a simple goal in mind: affordable housing that can be for everyone. The focus is on holistic, sustainable, quality design that aims at long-term cost savings living in a healthy and beautiful home. The project explores tiny home living as a solution to create a market-rate solution for diversely affordable home-ownership opportunities.

• Nov 18, 2017, 10 am till Noon, – Chappel-Dick Residence Tour, Bluffton, OH, LEED Platinum and registered Monarch Waystation. Andy Chappell-Dick, Design/Builder. Learn more.

Here’s an email from Andy,
“We welcome all those willing to make the two hour drive north to Bluffton (I-75 at exit 140.) This house was substantively built in 2013, awarded LEED Platinum in 2015, and details continue in process to this day. LEED for Homes was a powerful guide in the design process since we were aiming for Platinum from the beginning. The regimen was not without controversy and intrigue, and in this small town the unusual construction process was quite a spectacle. I (Andy) am a builder by trade, and did 99% of the work myself. The interior design is a collaboration with my wife Wendy, who also did the landscaping.We wanted the project to be a counterexample to all the new housing going up around us: efficient, small, unique, and natural. The aesthetic might best be described as 17th-century English cottage remodeled with an early 20th-century Arts and Crafts interior, yet built to 21st-century energy codes.

This was a residential infill lot, close to the bustling downtown of our village. The shell, 18’x28′, consists of Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs), a foam sandwich engineered to be entirely self-supporting without interior framework or embedded studs. Walls are 6.5″ thick, roof is 10.5″. There is a full finished basement (poured concrete), first floor, and second floor with 12′ cathedral ceiling. There are two bedrooms and two full baths. Depending on how it’s measured, square footage is either 960 or 1,450. Windows are Marvin Ultrex casements. Exterior is full-thickness southwest Ohio limestone veneer and slate roof. HVAC consists of two 9kBTU Fujitsu minisplits and a ducted heat recovery ventilator (HRV.)
Energy performance is fun to brag about. Initial blower door tests revealed airtightness below the device’s detectable limits–a second investigator measured 0.5 ACH50. The house is all-electric, and our annual energy bill (including heating, cooling, water heating, cooking, lighting… everything) has been about $800. Future plans include solar PV to achieve net-zero energy consumption.

In this relatively conservative corner of Ohio, interest in energy efficiency among contractors and their clients is dispiritingly low. Building codes are not enforced here, and with energy prices low there is little incentive to innovate. Bluffton is a college town with a robust local economy and a growing retirement population; so in spite of the evidence we hold out hope for a greener future.”

• Nov 4, 2017, 6:30 pm till 8:30 pm, – Artichoke Tour, OTR, 1824 Elm St, Cincinnati, OH 45202, possible LEED Gold retail home goods store renovation. From their site, “Artichoke is thrilled to have received a Merit Award from the 2016 Cincinnati Design Awards! We were fortunate to work with Terry Boling as our architect and Design Build as our general contractor. This stellar team produced an amazing result with the highest level of design and craft. The Cincinnati Design Awards (CDA) program recognizes the best built-environment design produced by Cincinnati area creative firms and promotes the social and economic value of good design in our community, selected by a distinguished nationwide jury of design thought leaders and eminent practitioners.”

• Oct 21, 2017, 10 am till Noon, – Yankie Residence Tour, Madeira, OH, possible LEED Platinum renovation. Paul Yankie of Green Building Consulting, owner and house captain. This renovation is an example of how to achieve LEED Platinum in the suburbs without solar, geothermal, a complete gut rehab, no easy access to community services. And a large lot size was detrimental to achieving LEED credits.

• Sep 16, 2017, 10 am till Noon, – Melink Residence Tour, Indian Hill. Steve Melink is the owner of Melink Corp. net-zero manufacturing facility. Melink designed and constructed the solar array at the Cincinnati Zoo. The home has many energy efficiency features including a solar array. Learn more from Brent Coleman’s WCPO.com article.

• May 27, 2017, 10 am till Noon, – Morales Luginbill Residence Tour, Oakley, possible LEED Gold home. It is a compact house on a small infill site in a walkable neighborhood. The large glass openings are concentrated on the south side to take advantage of passive solar. The exterior walls are offset double stud with spray foam insulation to limit thermal bridging and provide an air tight envelope. The heating system is hot water radiant. The cooling system uses high-efficiency mini-split heat pumps. There were two large oak trees on the site that had to be taken down. We harvested the lumber from them on site and have used it for the trim and stairs in the house. Here’s the house web site, “On what had been a small patch of grass in Oakley, stands a comfortable and efficient home. LEED for Homes was the tool that measured the success of its ambition to be environmentally sustainable.”

• May 3, 2017 – 6:30 till 8:30 pm, Tour of tiny home manufacturer’s display site. Our sponsor, One Small Garden offers custom made cozy “Get Away” Cabins, as well as adorable potting sheds which were featured at the Cincinnati Home & Garden Show. Their full line of custom storage and tiny homes are made to order. Many types and models are in display at their Milford Shopping Center display lot at the corner of State Route 50 and 131, Milford, OH 45150.

• Apr 26, 2017, 6:00 till 8:00 pm, – Earnshaw Ecohouse Tour, Mt. Auburn, This conscious community home’s goal is to be off the grid in 2017. You’ll learn some simple but very effective ways to limit energy use as well as reduce water consumption and eliminate waste. Their garden is an example of permaculture principals. All within a very low budget. Learn more.

• Apr 15, 2017, 10 am till Noon, – Hamilton Residence Tour, Sandra Hamilton’s Tiny Home in Northside, Cincinnati, designed by Edward Wright, our March 2015 host. 480 square foot (first floor), it was built on her property for her 89 year old Mother. Sandra designed it after a year of research on Dementia and Alzheimer’s. Edward refined her plans to get it thru building and zoning. Learn more about the 10-year tax abatement Cincinnati’s Visitability certification from this AARP article.

• Mar 18, 2017, 10 am till Noon, – Hampton Residence Tour, Walnut St. OTR gut renovation to LEED Certification, Jenifer & Steve Hampton of GreenBau owners/architect. The building was originally built around 1860 as a typical residential tenement with 6 units. Vacant for decades, it was completely rehabbed in 2015-2016 as a single family residence with three bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms, home office, and roof deck. While it was a gut rehab that created a modern floor plan, a number of historic features were retained including the original staircase, some original plaster, some trim, and the large number of window openings. It is currently seeking LEED Silver certification, with key options such as new insulation on exterior walls, roof, and floor slab, 95% efficient gas boiler providing radiant floor heating and domestic water heating, white membrane roof, sustainable product selection, low flow water fixtures, and more. Here’s a list of products and services used in the home. And an article about the tour from Krista Atkins Nutter.

• Feb 18, 2017, 10 am till Noon, – Swing House Tour, Artist Mark Dejong has created a sculptural intervention in a house in Camp Washington replacing all of the interior structure in a thoughtful way that both provides the infrastructure for a swing and highlights the history and material of the building. Learn more.

• Jan 21, 2017, 10 am till Noon, – Laure Quinlivan and Greg Ruthman Residence Tour, Mt. Lookout, Cincinnati. A LEED Gold home rebuilt on the site of their homestead for not much more than a major renovation and now they have 1/3rd more space but 1/2 the HVAC cost. Laure was instrumental in improving the Cincinnati LEED Tax abatement during her term on Cincinnati City Council. Learn more, Brent Coleman’s WCPO article.

• Jan 11, 2017, 6 to 8 pm, – 1333 Pendleton St. Row House Tour “2017 USGBC Green Home Tours Kick Off Party,” This home in the Pendleton Neighborhood was saved from demolition and painstakingly remodeled by Chris Lacey of A and L Properties. Features include: rooftop deck with city views, multiple exterior entertaining areas, garage access from rear alley, gourmet kitchen, wine cellar, hardwood floors, and high efficiency systems and fixtures. Anticipated LEED certification with 10 year property tax abatement. Interior design services and finishes for the project were provided by one of our sponsors, Heather Curless, of Greener Stock. Another sponsor, Green Building Consulting, is providing the LEED certification services.

November 19, 2016; 10 am till Noon: Walters Residence Tour, East Walnut Hills – Samuel Hannaford Home restoration and LEED Certified. Learn more, photo from Brent Coleman’s article for Channel 9. Also a Cincinnati Refined post, “The J.H. Rhodes House in Walnut Hills is one of the most beautiful examples of Romanesque Revival architecture in Cincinnati. From the foyer’s arched double doors to the dining room’s coffered ceiling, everything looks perfectly preserved from the days when the house was built, by none other than famed architect Samuel Hannaford a century ago.”

October 8, 2016; 10 am till Noon: Rauh Residence Tour, Woodlawn, OH – John Becker designed residence, considered the first international style home in the region. Built 1938. Completely restored in 2013 by the Cincinnati Preservation Association to it’s original plan and upgraded with the latest energy efficiency methods including geo-thermal, added insulation and high performance glazing. Learn more. The Frederick and Harriet Rauh House in Woodlawn became the first Modernist residence in the state to be honored with a Preservation Merit Award by the Ohio Historic Preservation Office (OHPO).

September 17, 2016; 10 am till Noon: Whitney Residence Tour, Anderson, OH – A “Quonset Roof” style barn conversion with geo-thermal and radiant heat. Thanks to Nancy Kibbee for suggesting this tour. Learn more by reading her blog post “Raising the Barn” in Natural Interiors. House Trends wrote two articles: “Remodeling ideas create a barn re-born” and “Home remodel gives new life to barn.”

May 21, 2016; 10 am till Noon: Bacher Residence Tour, Norwood, Ohio – 990 sqft home with an organic garden. 1940s construction of poured concrete offers excellent air sealing. Since convincing her mom to set-up a recycling center in their home as a young child, Stephanie Bacher has had a passion for recycling, conservation and learning and teaching the facts. At the tour she’ll share her knowledge of recycling, household items and health and beauty aids that perform beautifully but don’t harm the environment. Learn more at Stephanie’s Facebook page “Gradually Going Green.” And her web page GraduallyGoingGreen.com. Here’s a blog post about the tour.

April 16, 2016; 10 am till Noon: Holzhauser Residence Tour, OTR Downtown Cincinnati – Andy Holzhauser and Janice Liebenberg and daughter Olivia moved in six months ago to their redeveloped townhome on Elm near Washington Park. Their home has 3 beds, 2.5 baths with a study as well as an apartment below it. It was a 5-year project, culminating with the conversion of a 120 year-old home that had historically been used for tenement housing, and then vacant for the last decade. The home hopefully will be rated LEED Platinum, the highest designation for sustainable development. Andy and Janice want it to be considered a demonstration project to prove that our community’s oldest buildings can be converted to a new form that minimizes energy use through efficiency and solar, and maximizes clean air and healthy living. As Olivia has just turned 2 years old, Andy and Janice plan to join the growing contingent of OTR residents that choose to raise their family in the neighborhood. Andy and Janice both walk to work and are a 1-car family. The Enquirer posted a few photos from the OTR Future Leaders Holiday Home Tour. Sanyog Rathod was House Captain. And here is another article about the home from Brent Coleman with Channel 9.

March 19, 2016; 10 am till Noon: Alscher Hancock Residence Tour in Clifton – This new construction LEED Platinum home is designed for “aging in place” with “minimal utility bills.” The double-butterfly roof conceals over 5,000 watts of solar photovoltaic capacity, and the small front yard conceals three 250-foot geothermal wells serving the 4-ton system that not only heats and cools the house but provides all of its hot water as a natural by-product. Sanyog Rathod, House Captain.

February 20, 2016; 10 am till Noon: Labbe Residence Tour in Montgomery, OH –LEED Silver, Architect owned home which will show off its passive solar design in February. Learn more at Stephanie Labbe’s site page on the home. The home was featured in “Being Green in Cincinnati, Page 50. David Oen was House Captain.

January 16, 2016; 10 am till Noon: Spicknall Moothart Residence Tour – Northside, Cincinnati. LEED Gold. This modern home design has a number of notable sustainable design features, utilizing corrugated metal, fiber cement panels, and cedar on the exterior. Passive solar orientation was implemented in the design. The walls and roof were constructed of structural insulation panels (SIPs) which make the house extremely well insulated and quiet. There is a large south facing white metal roof. It is orientated for future solar panels/home battery installation. Cincinnati Enquirer article by Shauna Steigerwald, “Cool Homes: In Northside, Minimalist Goes Green.” Learn more.

November 14, 2015, 10 am till Noon, Center for Great Neighborhoods’ Shotgun Row House Tour, Covington, KY. Bradley Cooper’s Tiny Home Project “Start Small” in OTR ( Learn more. ) will not be ready for a tour in November so we are going to tour the best example of existing of tiny homes in Greater Cincinnati. It is the Covington, KY Center for Great Neighborhoods’ Shotgun Row restoration of five vacant and rundown shotgun houses. “First phase of $600K artist homes project unveiled,” CBC, Jan 23, 2014 (photos above from article) “Westside’s Redevelopment Continues with More Projects by Center for Great Neighborhoods,” RCN, Sep 3, 2014 “Covington Project Wins State Preservation Award,” RCN, May 22, 2015

November 1, 2015, 1 pm till 3 pm, Over-The-Rhine Condo Tour transformed into LEED Platinum. Meet Architect Martha Schickel Dorff and resident Chuck Lohre who did the LEED renovations and documentation. Features include a renewable energy pellet stove, 91% Energy Star plug loads, 31% water savings and 100% sustainable sites credits. Learn more.

October 3, 2015, 10 am till Noon, Fischer Residence Tour, Energy efficient and 20-26 panel PV solar electric system Fischer Residence in Milford. Learn more at the Brent Coleman article published by WCPO Channel 9. Here’s a list of products and services used in the home.

September 12, 2015, 10 am till Noon, Sun Sugar Farms Tour, Fritz Residence, Verona, Kentucky home and farm, Sun Sugar Farms supplies edamame and other vegetables to local restaurants. Learn more.

July 25, 2015, 10 am till Noon, Nietch Residence Tour, Columbia Tusculum Residence/Yoga Studio – This home addition and remodel was a labor of love for the owners, a yoga instructor and US EPA employee. From design through construction, every detail was chosen to reinforce their mantra of living lightly. The home’s heating and cooling is supplemented with a solar thermal powered radiant floor heating system. Solar PV was installed to offset their energy bills. A 2,500 gallon tank captures and stores the rain water from the entire roof. The water will be recycled for irrigation and eventually toilet flushing. October 31, 2014 article by Cincinnati Refined. Learn more from Greener Stock’s Houzz page.

May 16, 2015, 10 am till Noon, Boulter Residence Tour, A Frank Lloyd Wright designed home, in Clifton, may never reach LEED Certification but learns a lot by trying. This is your Chair, Chuck Lohre’s residence and the inspiration for his interest in sustainability. Videos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Photos. Learn more. Cincinnati Enquirer article by Carrie Blackmore Smith.

April 25, 2015, 9 to 11 am, Imago For The Earth Tour Community in Price Hill. Imago is a grassroots, environmental education organization. For over 30 years Imago has been modeling and educating about living in concert with the natural world, both animate and inanimate, human and non. Learn more.

March 21, 2015, 10 am till Noon, Nutter Residence Tour, Mt. Carmel, OH, is the most energy efficient home we have visited. Their first year energy cost was about $200! The home also has the only rainwater toilet flush system we have seen. Learn more at the house blog. Cincinnati Magazine article article April 2006. Cincinnati Magazine article March 2008. Insul-Deck insulated concrete floor form application story. Environmental Design and Construction Excellence in Design Award 2008. For a list of products and service providers on the Nutter Home download this Excel file.

March 7, 2015, 10 am till Noon, Wright Residence Tour, this highly energy efficient home achieved LEED Gold. Owner Architect Edward Wright will lead the tour. Learn more. Cincinnati Enquirer article by Carrie Blackmore Smith.

January 17, 2015, 10 am till Noon, Gaitan Residence Tour, Over-The-Rhine home has applied for the City of Cincinnati U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design tax abatement. They should save about $40,000 over the five year period of the tax savings, easily paying for the approximate $6,000 in higher performance materials, systems and LEED fees. Learn more. WCPO article by Brent Coleman.

November 8, 2014, 10 am till Noon, Kinsman Residence Tour is a LEED Silver home that’s boiler free. Heating and natural cooling from passive and thermal solar sources. The home is located in the Cincinnati neighborhood of Northside. Learn more.

If you would like to do the right thing, contact Chuck Lohre for a …

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Future Tour Options:

• 3233 Fairfield, Cincinnati, OH; Envisage Architecture LLC, Sarah Kleiner, AIA, LEED AP. Conveniently located on Fairfield Avenue in the Cincinnati neighborhood of Evanston. These new homes will offer the convenience of urban living and the modern amenities of new construction. Check out the links on their website to learn more details about the features of these new homes. https://www.envisage-arch.com/expertise

• Dan Schimberg Residence

• Working in Neighborhood LEED Homes, Whitney Schieltz is contact, 513-432-4979, ext. 109

• Warminski Residence – Bellview, KY, Parson’s House that needed a lot of work. Windows were preserved and high quality storm windows were added to improve energy efficiency. The home is brick and stucco, so adding insulation is a challenge.

• Millard Residence – Potential Home Energy Rating System (HERS) Net-Zero home.

• Carl Strauss designed home in Avondale, renovated to LEED Silver.

• Painter Residence, Hyde Park, LEED Platinum home with a Tesla Charging Station and a rainwater harvesting system.

• Theobald Residence, Covington, KY. Builder and owner of the first private container home in the region. Two shipping containers side-by side will be renovated off site with recycled materials featuring contemporary design for an efficient, flexible and environmentally conscious dwelling. The home isn’t finished yet, but Jerod will have us over when it gets done.

• Abrahanson Residence, LEED Platinum home with solar panels.

• Mills Residence in Clifton, a pioneer in radiant heating in 1950, this home has been preserved by owner Scott Knox.

• Bronzie LEED Platinum and Passive House in Hyde Park

• LEED Gold home in Northside with solar, geothermal and a xeriscaped yard

• 943 Monastery St., LEED Platinum, Passive House

• LEED Platinum designer home in Mt. Adams