More than 1,500 commercial buildings and 684 homes have been certified but just 48 homes have received the platinum ranking, among them a four-bedroom home in Freeport, Maine, as well as homes in Minneapolis; Callaway, Florida; Dexter, Michigan; and Paterson, New Jersey. The checklist for certification can be more daunting than a private-school application, which prompts many to abandon the quest. Schey is not seeking LEED certification on his next home (though the project’s architect, Melinda Gray, is seeking it for hers).
The organization charges from US$400 for a home to US$22,500 for the largest buildings to register and certify costs.
Joel McKellar, a researcher with an architecture firm in Charleston, South Carolina, said that to earn credit for adequate natural light, “you have to calculate the area of the room, the area of the windows, how much visible transmittance of light there is.”
Michael Lehrer, who designed the platinum-rated Water (PLUS) Life Museum complex in Hemet, outside Los Angeles, said, “They have mundane things in there that are pretty nonsensical and others things that are pretty profound,” adding, “At a time when everybody and their sister and brother are saying ‘We are green,’ it’s very important that these things be vetted in a credible way.”
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