Apartment Choice

A new apartment community in San Diego County is proving that green is both beautiful and affordable. SOLARA is a part of a mixed-use development from Community Housing Works that includes 56 fully solar -powered homes. Sun power is only a part of this smart green growth development which also features energy -efficient designs, healthy materials , water conserving equipment , and high recycled content throughout – even in the community art installations . This model project is the result of collective efforts between the city of Poway, Community Housing Works , and Global Green USA . Together with Rodriguez Associates Architects & Planners the development team produced one-, two- and three- bedroom units priced between $388-$1,075 per month, depending on occupants’ income. SOLARA apartments are affordable upfront and in operating costs with energy saving features like passive solar orientation , cool roofs, low-e windows, Energy Star appliances , and tankless boilers for h...

The long retail spine of Sydney Road, Brunswick, just north of Melbourne's CBD, was once a prosperous trading outpost on the way to the goldfields. These days it's a bohemian mix of variety stores, op shops, halal butchers and Lebanese bakeries. Take a side street to the west, however, and a different picture emerges. Sandwiched between Sydney Road and the Upfield train line is an area undergoing rapid and widespread transformation. Light industry is fast being replaced by mid- rise apartment buildings , their inhabitants attracted by the short commute into town and cheaper prices than in the city's south-east. The quality of these units is, on the whole, depressingly bad; think poor ventilation and bedrooms that "borrow" natural light (a weasel word for being dark and windowless). The occasional jazzy façade tries feebly to make up for otherwise cheap construction amid a chorus of greys. At ground level, carpark roller doors alternate with mean pocket garden...