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I WAS BUILDING "GREEN" IN 1978. HERE'S PROOF!

By
Real Estate Agent with Bill Cherry, Realtor 0124242

7655 SOUTH BRAESWOOD, HOUSTON

This is a Houston Chronicle ad that Houston Lighting & Power Co. bought and ran on June 4, 1978.  The fellow in the photo is I.

For some reason, people are inferring that building GREEN is a new idea.  Well, it isn't.  My company and I were doing it 31 years ago.

 

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS - HIGHLAND PARK

214 503-8563

ON THE WEB

Comments (6)

Russell Lewis
Realty Austin, Austin Texas Real Estate - Austin, TX
Broker,CLHMS,GRI

Great post and you are right, energy efficiency and other so called "green" features are not all that new. However there were just fewer people (like you) supporting those ideas back then!

Sep 18, 2009 01:53 AM
Richard Weeks
Dallas, TX
REALTOR®, Broker

Bill,

Great story.  I guess that was about the time energy was no longer a cheap commodity.

Sep 18, 2009 02:15 AM
BILL CHERRY
Bill Cherry, Realtor - Dallas, TX
Broker & Wealth Coach

Russell and Richard,

I couldn't help but laugh when I really thought about this adventure.  This site had many big trees, and we insisted that they be saved.  The great architect Arthur Steinberg (RIP) worked very hard on his designs and land plan, and accomplished that.  I doubt another Houston architect could have come close to Arthur's accomplishments.

Naturally our density was FAAARRRR less than the average townhome project being built in Houston back then.

And then we had double stucco walls with, I think, foam insulation in between, etc.  Of course no one cared back then...or at least they didn't care enough to pay extra for these amenities, so we ate that part of the overhead.

Nevertheless, I've always been proud of this project as well as the single family homes we built in Houston neighborhoods that were also "green."

Sep 18, 2009 05:29 AM
Steve Shatsky
Dallas, TX

Hi Bill... well you certainly were a trend setter... who knew it would take 30 years for the rest of us to catch up to where you were in 1978?  Way to go!

Sep 20, 2009 06:45 AM
Trey Thurmond
BCR Realtors - College Station, TX
College Station , Texas Homes

Bill

I can recall an Energy Star Program our local elctric supplier had in the 70's.. They actually would put a medallion on our all electric new homes.

Sep 20, 2009 08:01 AM
BILL CHERRY
Bill Cherry, Realtor - Dallas, TX
Broker & Wealth Coach

Steve and Trey --

Our product was primarily based on our own good sense and logic.  But Trey's memory is perfect.  The Light Company was pushing energy star homes which they would test for compliance.  Ours were always the poster children, though, because we did much more.

In fact, we experimented with solar panels but we were not satisfied with the asthetics vs the results.  And the darned things had a way of leaking.

Sep 20, 2009 10:07 AM