Green Mansion Comes With An Ocean Floor ViewFirst ever "triple-certified" green residence -- and it's HUGE. |
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| By Michael d'Estries in Green Building | March 6, 2009 | |
While the words “green” and “mansion” don’t really play nice together, this home — called the Acqua Liana — is certainly a testament to big-thinking green design.
Coming in at over 15,000 square-feet, the Liana resides on about 1.6 acres near the Atlantic Ocean. It is the first home to be built and certified to the rigorous “green” standards as defined and mandated by the U.S. Green Building Council, the Florida Green Building Council and Energy Star for Homes. Some of the green features include:
Solar panels generating enough energy to run the entire home on certain days (generating enough electricity to run 2 average sized homes). When combining the home’s solar use, energy efficient appliances and air-conditioning, insulative characteristics and overall architectural design, the home’s automated bio-feedback system will display its energy efficiency in real time.
- Environmentally conscious lighting that cuts down on fixture consumption by 70%.
- Enough pools, reflecting ponds, water gardens, misters, waterfalls, strategic landscaping, etc. to drop the site temperature by 2-3 degrees over neighboring properties, thus reducing cooling costs.
- A water system that collects enough runoff water from the entire cedar roof to fill an average swimming pool every 14 days. The water is then used to fill the water garden and irrigate the landscape.
- Use of enough reclaimed and renewable wood to save over 10.5 acres of rain forest.
- During construction over 340,000 pounds of debris and trash was recycled. Over 85% of all debris was diverted, and will never reach a landfill.
Pretty incredible for a home that massive to embrace all of those green characteristics — but it’s proof that any dwelling can be made more efficient with the technologies now available. Obviously, besides the garage with views of the swimming pool embedded in the walls — I really love the see-through floor featuring painted lotus and exotic fish. Want to move in? The asking price is $29 million.
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Meadowlark said,
I have to say I have a problem with anything made by someone who has an action figure of himself.
http://www.frank-mckinney.com/action_figure.aspx
Can you say EGO?
Laura said,
How can any enormous house like this be considered “green?” – by its very nature, it is unnecessary and consumes more energy than required by any normal person. It shouldn’t be allowed to be rated by USGBC.
Florentine said,
I’m gonna have to drop a little Kantian categorical imperative here as ask this action figure d-bag what he thinks would happen if everyone on earth lived like he does?
This highlights the major flaws in green building standards. They simply MUST take into consideration larger sustainability issues, like walkability and density. Homes like these are not “green”. I don’t care how many solar panels is has.
deborah said,
This is very not green and nothing more than insane to seem to think it is
Dan said,
What a joke and an insult to those who are really trying to design and build sustainable housing. Material consumption in the construction of the home as well as the ongoing maintenance has to be part of the truly “green” label. This home is challenged to respect either of those aspects of sustainability.
GoforGreenGal said,
The idea behind this is great, but is it really saving energy? About 20 houses in Baltimore generate the same amount of energy as this one home!
Cait said,
I agree with you all that this house is not “green,” nor does it promote sustainable practices. The sad fact is that massive homes are going to be built either way. The one (and I stress one) good thing about this house is that it provides a less intensive option for mansion building. However, sustainability is about providing for everyone’s needs, not their greeds.
Hannah said,
I’m not sure how this house can possibly be “green”? What a waste of resources, attention, etc, when there are people out there actually trying to develop more environmental friendly housing and materials!
Hannah
http://buildakinderearth.com
Mula terca said,
I smell greenwash. Or hogwash. Maybe both. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: short of REUSING an EXISTING building that size and hopefully having a believable number of people in it, you will NEVER make it “green”. What was there before, and how much energy as well as landfill was used in removing it? I can bet money that if you calculated the embedded energy in an already existing house–even a large one–one where you didn’t have to clear the land and haul everything away and put in all new windows (replacement windows, which give up their gas and rely heavily on vinyl–a petroleum product–are mostly junk compared to storms and tightening up existing windows) and put down new floors and wiring and drywall and yadda yadda yadda…even restoring another San Simeon would be a more environmentally friendly endeavor.
And don’t, don’t let’s start on the matter of “donut” cities, skewed population density, or the highway addiction most of these new projects tend to foster by their “exclusive” locations. Locations which generally used to be good farmland.
I’m looking to return to school for a degree in historic preservation, with the aim of helping others get it through people’s thick skulls that the greenest building is the one already built. Though I don’t know how far any of us will get in a country that eats, breathes and sleeps “Newer is better”. I have nothing against new building properly done but everything against the unbelievable waste we promote through these stupid misunderstandings and misconceptions.
Wonder Woman Action Figure #2 said,
I hear there’s new villas in France that are giving away a Telsa roadster for each home bought. I am wondering how many “action figures” Mr. McKinney is giving away to the buyer of Acqua Liana.
I think the best answer would be 1 if you buy and 2 if you don’t!
Ed said,
Frank McKinney is a jacka**. What a bunch of crap.”Enough reclaimed lumber to save 10.5 acres of rain forest”. How about enough reclaimed lumber wasted that 5 normal houses will have to use virgin lumber.
Theresa said,
Can’t this guy just focus his money on helping others be more green with their smaller, perhaps regular-sized homes? With all the money it took to build it, hundreds of other homes could’ve been modified and thus impacting the world more positively.
Carol said,
Wow, I checked out the tour they have of the house. There is a gas fire in the middle of an outdoor pond. That kind of waste is not green. And their is a really cool fish tank with Angel fish and Clown fish, but no anemone to keep them company.