News
Three new projects posted
We've added several projects, completed or currently under construction:
An interior renovation to a historic town home: Suite Change
A contemporary new house in mid-coast Maine, super low-energy: Flying Point
A Deep Energy Retrofit to a 1960's ranch house in-town in Portland Maine: Madeline ReFab
Take a look!
Mar 5, 2010
Podcast & Green Building Advisor
Phil Kaplan and Chris Briley's green building podcasts recently caught the attention of Green Building Advisor. As Architects we are proud to be affiliated with this site and think it's a great resource for building green.
Feb 24, 2010
Winter Edition of Boston Home
Adventures in Extreme Green in the latest issue of Boston Home.
Jan 25, 2010
Residential Architect - Architects' Choice
Check us out in the November/December issue of Residential Architect.
Jan 11, 2010
Hats off to Jamie!
Kaplan Thompson Architects would like to congratulate Jamie Broadbent on the recent completion of his professional licensing exams. He is now a registered architect in the State of Maine. Jamie’s talent and drive are truley assets to our firm.
Jan 1, 2010
KTA wins USGBC LEED for Homes Innovative Project Award!
The BrightBuilt Barn has won the 2009 LEED for Homes Innovative Project Award from the USGBC. Phil Kaplan and Tedd Benson from Bensonwood accepted the award in Phoenix at the annual GreenBuild conference.
According to the USGBC, “BrightBuilt Barn was selected for this award because it brings to life a vision of an evolved future for the homebuilding industry, and effectively employs a smaller, replicable, flexible prefabricated design that succeeds in reimagining the look and feel of "home," while keeping upfront costs low and longterm operational costs to an absolute minimum.” We couldn’t agree more. Thank you USGBC and thank you BrightBuilt Barn Team!
Nov 18, 2009
Holiday Party
The partners are rolling into 2010
Nov 15, 2009
NPR - Living on Earth: Building Green with Less Green
BrightBuilt Barn was part of the conversation on NPR this weekend on how to reduce residential carbon emissions. To hear the full story click on the following link or listen to the mp3 directly.
Oct 26, 2009
Fat is the New Green
Check out Jesse's latest interview in the October issue of Maine Home + Design: Fat is the New Green
Oct 19, 2009
Take a Virtual Tour of Metro Green
Curious to see more about Metro Green? Check out the attached You Tube video where Metro Green is featured on the Arlington Virginia Network.
Photographs by Parker Daniell
Sep 14, 2009
AIA New England Competition Exhibition
If you are near the Portsmouth area, feel free to check out some of our work at the Discover Portsmouth Center. We will be exhibiting in an American Institute of Architects (AIANE) competition between September 28th and October 3rd. You can also view and vote on our work online at AIANE, we have two entries #48 #49. Vote for us as "The House in Which I'd Most Like to Live."
Sep 10, 2009
NESEA 2009 Green Open House Tour
This year we will be participating with the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA) for their annual Green Buildings Open House on October 3rd. This is the largest sustainable energy event in the US promoting sustainable energy solutions. Via open houses throughout the US NESEA hopes to inspire communities and advocate a commitment to responsible energy use.
We will be showcasing two homes in Falmouth and Rockland Maine. Check out NESEA’s site for directions and open house hours.
Photographs by Jamie Broadbent and Naomi C.O. Beal
Aug 21, 2009
Washington Post: Going Green and Platinum in Arlington
Read about our latest LEED Platinum home, METRO GREEN, located in Arlington Virginia via the attached WASHINGTON POST link.
Jun 29, 2009
June issue of JLC - The Journal of Light Construction
Check out the featured article "Building a Tight House."
Jun 20, 2009
Metro Green certified LEED-H Platinum
We've just gotten notification from Fore Solutions, our LEED for Homes provider, that the Metro Green project has been certified LEED-H Platinum. And it's the first Platinum in the state of Virginia. Bragging rights!
It's exciting to be able to prove that our hard work is heading in the right direction.
May 18, 2009
Jesse and Robin present to CompostModern Maine
Last week Jesse and Robin presented the BrightBuilt Barn to the Maine AIGA chapter's sustainability conference: CompostModern.
We've uploaded a copy of the presentation to Slideshare (without the charming words) in case anyone wants to see the story of what BrightBuilt did to us as a studio: BrightBuilt at CompostModern
May 11, 2009
Treehugger names BrightBuilt Barn as Best Single Family Project of 2008!!!
We are pleased to have been acknowledged by Treehugger in their first annual awards Best of Green Design + Architecture
"It is a model of how we can build houses that don't need furnaces, that don't look like walk-in coolers, and how we can build to last." - Treehugger
Apr 29, 2009
March issue of Maine Home & Design
Check out the featured article "How Green Can You Go?"
Feb 11, 2009
Falmouth Flyer Certified LEED Gold
KTA just received our first LEED Gold Certification on a residential design located in Falmouth, Maine. This home is the third private residence in Maine certified LEED Gold and was made possible by our talented team including: Kolbert Building & Renovation, Casco Bay Engineering, Carroll Associates Landscape Architects, and Fore Solutions
Photo by: Naomi C. O. Beal Photography
Jan 27, 2009
BrightBuilt Barn in New York Times!
The BrightBuilt Barn has officially made the big time.
See the article in NYT's Home section under "Currents".
The article is titled, "When Its Mood Is Green, So Are You"
Jan 15, 2009
BrightBuilt Barn featured on Treehugger.com
BrightBuilt Barn was featured on Treehugger.com and JetsonGreen.com just in time for people to make their New Year's resolution to go Net-Zero in 2009. KTA appreciates the kind reviews from both of these very popular blogs in the world of green.
Dec 30, 2008
Article in Electronic House
We are pleased to see that even the technology driven crowd is interested in Bright Built Barn! Electronic House just did an editorial on Bright Built Barn titled "Zero-Energy Home Goes High-Tech." The article gets into the specific technologies used in the design of this home.
Nov 20, 2008
Naomi Beal's New Bright Built Photos
Alan and his team are making great progress. Most of the interior finish boards are in. The cool part is that this can happen before the electricians are finished with their work. This is a true mark of a disentangled building.
Keith, Alan, his electricians (Kevin and David), and Myself worked out the footswitch details, based on Brian Lazarus' prototype (below). There will be no actual light switches on the walls, but instead we'll have integral, clickable plates at various locations along the face of the base chase. This will not only keep the walls pristine, but also easily allow for future changes in switch location if walls are ever moved or added. They will be LED-backlit and just proud of the faceof the baseboard for visibility, and proportioned so that a simple push from the foot, even from the side, will activate them.
-Phil Kaplan
Nov 17, 2008
Portland Buy Local
KTA joined the Portland Buy Local movement today. To visit their site and view a directory of local independent businesses click here.
Sep 19, 2008
Treehugger
Treehugger.com released "Bright Built Barn is Net-Zero Energy" today. The article focuses on increasing the life span of a bulding while incorporating techniques that will make the structure more adaptable to changing systems.
Sep 18, 2008