Orange County Register

A builder hoping to be the first in Orange County to construct the ultimate “green” home will erect the structure in a matter of hours Thursday morning, live on the Web.

The building of the prefabricated, two-story house begins in Newport Beach about 9 a.m. and should be finished in a few hours. View it live at the LivingHomes Web site.

LivingHomes says it built the first home in the nation to obtain the highest LEED green-building certification — platinum — in Santa Monica.

And Steve Glenn, the company’s chief executive officer, says he’s aiming for another first: Orange County’s first platinum home.

Glenn isn’t the only builder seeking to achieve that milestone; at least two others, the developers of a luxury home project in Laguna Beach as well as a homeowner in Costa Mesa, also are seeking the first O.C. platinum rating.

It’s hard to beat the LivingHomes project, however, for speed of construction. The structure itself will take only hours to put in place using a 190-ton crane. In about a month, Glenn said, the home should be finished and ready to live in.

“We know a little bit about the process,” Glenn said. “Hopefully, we’ll get certification before anyone else does, but if we don’t that’s OK.”

Getting certified requires a bit of paperwork and an inspection, a process that, in other projects, has taken months.

The home will include familiar green features, such as solar panels and recycled construction materials, as well as the less familiar — a “gray water” system, for example, ready to recycle sink or shower water for irrigation if authorized by Newport Beach; such recycling is allowed in the city in some cases, and its use could be expanded in the future.

Watch this space Thursday for photos and video of the prefab construction event.

(Photo of LivingHomes house like the one to be built in Newport courtesy, LivingHomes.)

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