Margarido House

Completed in 2008, the Margarido House is Northern California's 1st LEED-H rated home, and Platinum at that, is clean, cool, and contemporary. The name makes me think of a margarita, and maybe it's because this house could actually be described as delicious. It exudes what you would expect from high-end, high-style California living. Modular, geometric lines of glass, wood, concrete, and steel make up the basis for this home and give it a wonderful style typical to what you imagine of West Coast homes.

The house itself has a wide array of eco-friendly features, from sustainable and engineered exterior and framing products like steel and Timberstrand wood, to smart house automation features for energy savings. The house uses things like solar powered hot water and electricity, in floor hydronic heating, thermally broken doors and windows, and poured concrete floors and walls, all to minimize the energy needed to heat, cool, power and maintain the home. Locally sourced materials, rain water retention, drought-resistant plantings, a roof deck, and recycled materials all help to further this homes small eco-footprint. Not to mention all the appliances, plumbing, lighting, tiles, counters, and even furniture that went into making the interior of the home just as sustainable as the foundation and exterior.

All this was built by McDonald Construction and Development, and done with the help of some very cool companies like Media Plenty (who also collaborated on 131 Hillside), and PlumbBob, an architectural component of a Philadelphia sustainable housing development company, OnionFlats.

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