If you have or know a solar project, please submit it to us for consideration as a featured project using Submit an Item. http://www.solaripedia.com/302/submit-an-item.html

Project

Martha Rose Construction Solar-Ready Homes (Seattle, Washington, USA)

Martha Rose Construction leads the home building industry by building Green High-Performance Homes in the Seattle, Washington, area. In March of 2007, MRC became a partner with the Department of Energy and the Building America program. Their goal is to help builders achieve a zero-net energy use home that is competitively priced in the market place. MRC has built homes that achieved an Energy (E)-Rating of 33, getting close to the 0 that is the goal set forth by the Building America team.

Martha Rose Atrium (Seattle, Washington, USA)

The passive solar atrium works as a buffer and/or supplemental heat source on cool days and an extension of the living room during warmer times in this Seattle, Washington home. The ceiling fan helps to distribute the warm air into the home. ©2009 Martha Rose Construction in Seattle, WA

Martha Rose's interest in energy efficiency and sustainable building practices goes back to the 1970‘s and currently is her main focus. Today Martha is striving toward building Zero-Energy spec-homes.

Martha started working in the construction industry in 1972 as a laborer and carpenter after realizing she liked working with her hands better than being in an office. Ten years of “nail-pounding“ brought her to several areas of the country on both coasts. The work ranged from production framing to finish carpentry work and from residential foundations to the West Seattle Bridge. While the work was hard, the training was an invaluable foundation.

In 1982, Martha went to work for the City of Seattle as a building inspector, where she spent 4 years monitoring all of the commercial and residential projects in her district. During this time, she was taught about related construction topics such as shoreline erosion control, slide area identification and prevention, and techniques to keep water out of buildings. By being in the unique position of looking at both good and bad building styles and techniques, she was able to gain a broad working knowledge of good construction practices.

For the next 10 years, Martha worked as a free-lance project manager for other developers. The types of projects she supervised were large and small residential, commercial, and institutional. This period of time added new growth in topics related to the development process.

Today, Martha is an educator herself, pushing the building industry towards zero-energy-use homes.

Documents

Martha Rose Building America Case Study (1,504 kb)