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TAHOMA VISTA VILLAGE, 2017
Tacoma, Washington
Mark R. Blubaugh, architect

Blue Brook Architecture designed an affordable green apartment rehabilitation for Tahoma Vista Village Apartments.  Green Design features in the apartments include installing heat pump heating in the apartment living rooms to replace electric resistance baseboard heaters, water conserving shower heads, lavatory faucets, and kitchen sinks, WaterSense toilets which are only 1.1 gallon per flush.  The lighting is compact fluorescent, using natural warm color lamps.  The refrigerators are Energy Star rated.  All adhesives and paints used in construction were low or no VOC.  Water heaters which were replaced were upgraded to a 0.93 energy factor.  To prevent the accumulation of indoor air pollution, all units have very quiet and energy efficient continuous run exhaust fans in one bathroom, which operate at an increased level of ventilation when the resident flips a switch.  Attic insulation was upgraded, missing crawl space insulation was replaced, and the hot water pipes in the crawl spaces were insulated.  The community building was upgraded with heat pump heating, an energy recovery ventilator, more efficient lighting, and an electrical back-up generator.

Exterior improvements included raised vegetable garden planters for the residents to grow their own produce.  The exterior site lighting was replaced with new, more energy efficient fixtures which direct light only toward the ground, to minimize light pollution of the night sky.  The project included extensive improvements to site accessibility, re-sloping walkways to make them accessible.  The mail and trash areas were also revised to be accessible.  .

Major Considerations: The non-profit owner wanted to modernize the property con it could continue providing affordable housing.  With our strong green building background, we were able to assist them in making the most cost-effective building choices.