Eco-friendly real estate may seem like an oxymoron in Lafayette; however, “The Event House” at 500 Madison St. is redefining what Lafayette home buyers will demand while simultaneously reinvigorating a neglected neighborhood.
The public is invited to an open house this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. This two-bedroom, two-bathroom home complete with a bonus room and open-concept living area that can double as a dance floor for evening soirees is UL Lafayette architecture professor Geoff Gjertson's and university architecture graduate students’ brain child. Stephanie Bordelon, who is a member of the team that designed the home, says she and her fellow coworkers aim to steer Lafayette toward green living.
“We wanted to try to get Lafayette moving in the better direction — the more energy-efficient direction,” says Bordelon, an architecture graduate student. “It’s got to start somewhere. So we figured who better than us.”
This “us” also includes contractor Jeremy Arceneaux and PAR Realty agent Peggy Richard Grace. The Lafayette Public Trust Financing Authority is backing the project as part of its neighborhood infill initiative, which aims to fill vacant or under-developed property between existing buildings, according to a UL Lafayette press release.
“Their [the LPTFA's] mission is to really go into neighborhoods — like this neighborhood — that have somewhat been neglected and try to help revitalize those neighborhoods, as well as support low-income type housing,” says Gjertson. “This [house] really fit their mission well. And it really fit our mission at the university in trying to do community outreach and service learning for the students. So, it’s just a perfect marriage. Then, PAR Realty coming on board has just been an amazing synergistic relationship.”
This newly formed partnership is responsible for a house that utilizes energy-efficient, below-ground heating and cooling units that create what's known as a plenum system, as well as an advanced wood framing polyurethane foam insulation that calls for fewer studs in walls and allows for more insulation within them. Priced at about $153,000, The Event House boasts 1,350 square feet of living space and a lagniappe 550 square feet in attached, covered porches.
“There are so many details about this house that would just blow your mind,” says public relations consultant and special events planner Abi Augello. “I think a lot of people are in the market for green homes but don’t know it, especially in Lafayette. They don’t understand the impact it can make on them; they don’t know the perks of the investment.”
These perks include signifcant tax breaks. For example, homeowners can claim a tax credit of up to 30 percent of the costs of certain green living systems like that of the solar system in The Event House. There is no cap on the credit, which is available through 2016. Expected to receive a National Green Building Standard Rating, The Event House should also alleviate monthly energy bills’ costs.
Gjertson says the team has plans in 2012 to build another house like this one, which minimized building material waste and the need for several contractors. The Event House’s design team included Bordelon, Graham Goodyear, Michael Reid, Josh Franks, Ravelle Reed, Jessica Degate, Brant Patout, Philippe Callais, Adam Pettus, Liv Urbus and Kyle Comeaux.
MAY 24 Blogger Robert Mann posts this entry about the Baton Rouge Chamber's recent report on Louisiana's higher education system. It's critical to economic development, and yet our system is facing a "funding crisis" with no way to resolve it, the report says. The Chamber says control of tuition and fees must be returned to the higher ed governing boards.
MAY 24 Here's a NBC33 story about Tyrann Mathieu. He has signed with the Arizona Cardinals, inking a $3 million, four-year deal. He gets a signing bonus of $265K, but gets another, larger bonus if he doesn't get cut from the team for doing drugs. The deal reportedly includes mandatory tests and meetings for the player.
MAY 24 Jarvis DeBerry posts here about the redonkulus rhetoric that would have us believe NOLA is a safe city with a murder problem. Maybe the city's crime stats don't compare with its murder stats because you can't manipulate a murder, he says: a dead body's a dead body. It just doesn't make sense, he says, and his readers agree: a poll asks if they believe the city is safe, and more than 90 percent say no.
MAY 24 Jindal administration officials announced Thursday that the privatization of public health care is going to cost a lot more than they budgeted for, the Advocate reports here. "I'm so surprised," said no one. Anywhere. The cost they're projecting now is more than $1 billion - a lot more than the $626 million budgeted for it. And, it's more than it cost the state to operate those hospitals. So why are we doing this again?
MAY 24 Blogger CB Forgotston ridicules the recent PR campaign by the state GOP in the wake of a legislative auditor's request to both major parties. The GOP (apparently unaware that the Dems got the same request) started yammering about being targeted because it had "killed" a tax increase. CB finds that laughable, but it's also pretty funny that the GOP was comparing this episode to the IRS scandal (Because the President has so much to do with our state auditor. Right?).
MAY 24 Politico details some recent fund-raising efforts by Sen. David Vitter, which have raised the question of his future political plans. This time, it is a $5,000 per head "bayou weekend" that includes "Cajun cooking" and an all-caps "alligator hunt," the story reports. Funds raised go to a super PAC that can spend money to support Vitter in federal or state races, the story points out.
MAY 24 The pink building on Royal in the quarter was sold at a sheriff's sale Thursday, this Picayune story reports. An injunction that would have halted the sale wasn't enforced because the family failed to post a $150,000 bond, the story reports. So the owner of the mortgages on the building bought it, for nearly $7 million. Now the feuding family will have to negotiate with that company to get a lease on the building that has housed their business for close to 60 years.
MAY 23 This post in Louisiana Voice tells us about a bill by a Winnsboro lege that would require all public high school students to take at least one Course Choice online class in order to graduate. (What?) Blogger Tom Aswell says it's a monument to "waste and corruption," especially in light of the problems he's exposed with the program in recent weeks. Idaho had a similar program, but voters removed it by a 2-1 margin, Aswell says.
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