GreenBuild project named winner of 2019 Commonwealth Award

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – The State College Community Land Trust’s GreenBuild Duplex has been named a project winner of the 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Awards, according to a press release. The smart growth advocacy organization honored 15 awardees from across the state at the Commonwealth Awards program held at the Forum in Harrisburg rcently. The Commonwealth Awards celebrate visionary community leadership and catalytic development projects and initiatives that find new uses for vacant and underutilized land, increase opportunities for communities on the rise and breathe new life into old neighborhoods. Leading professionals in the fields of real estate development, architecture, engineering, transportation, planning, education, healthcare, municipal government and community development came together to recognize people, projects and initiatives within the past three years that have made outstanding contributions to the fabric of their communities, exemplify 10,000 Friends’ mission principles and demonstrate innovation and excellence in smart growth. “When we started the project, some people questioned whether building one duplex would make a significant contribution to the affordable housing market,” said project chair Peg Hambrick. “Now that the homes have been occupied, and we have been collecting energy use data for over a year, we know that GreenBuild has delivered on its mission to be affordable to purchase and to own and are looking forward to applying the lessons of GreenBuild to future projects” The Hamer Center for Community Design’s Energy Efficient Housing Research Group at Penn State and the State College Community Land Trust were honored for their cooperation on this project. Other collaborators not present at the ceremony were the West Penn Power Sustainable Energy Fund, the Borough of State College, Centre County Government, S&T Bank and many generous donors. Architecture and administrative services were provided by Henry Architecture and Design and Weber Murphy Fox, Inc. The houses were constructed by Envinity, Inc. Since 2018, GreenBuild partnerships have continued through the Energy+ project. The Energy+ initiative is a program to enact energy efficiency-focused capital improvements via affordable housing programs in the Centre Region. Energy+ continues the GreenBuild project’s commitment to lessen energy burdens for homeowners, reduce the environmental impact of existing housing stock and enhance the public investment in housing affordability. The Energy+ project received Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency funds this July to complete physical upgrades to existing housing units, and was just awarded additional funding from the West Penn Power Sustainable Energy Fund to continue its work. For more information about the State College Community Land Trust and GreenBuild, visit www.scclandtrust.org. Originally published by StateCollege.com.