Dr. 'Green' House

When Freeman Ledbetter was nearing the end of his post-doctorate program in neurochemistry at Duke University in 1976, he didn’t have his sights set on starting his own medical practice. Instead, Ledbetter envisioned a career in home development. To some it may have seemed a bit offbeat for someone who had spent eight years learning about the complexities of the brain and body, but to Ledbetter it was a reasonable choice.

“During my post-doctorate period, I came to the conclusion that the majority of the life-threatening diseases that we experience are pretty much preventable if we just clean up the environment in which we live,” Ledbetter says. “So, I thought that I would have a much more exciting time trying to figure out ways to prevent disease rather than trying to find cures, and that led me to thinking about what is now called ‘green’ building,” he says.

Of course at that time when Ledbetter was developing his concept, very few developers were building environmentally friendly, or solar, houses and the green movement had yet to get underway. But Ledbetter was determined to design and build spaces using natural materials that “our bodies are compatible with” and that would help to save the environment. Although he had no

architectural training or engineering experience, and had not even officially launched a business, the graduate student convinced some landowners in his hometown of Durham, North Carolina, that he was capable of helping them develop 32 acres of prime real estate.

“I had taken a real estate course, and had just gotten my license when I met these people while out one day riding my bicycle,” Ledbetter says. “One part of the land had already been subdivided by some other developer, but his contract had expired, which gave me an opportunity to move right in and begin to help the owners manage the sale of that [land]. I then worked out an agreement with them to develop the part of the land that wasn’t developed,” he says.

That agreement included Ledbetter raising the $250,000 needed to take on the project, designing the site plan–the installation of streets, water, and sewer lines, and all the infrastructure–and locating builders to construct the houses. Ledbetter secured a development loan from an area bank, hired a local structural engineer, and used subcontractors to begin building his solar houses. But unlike a lot of builders, this conservationist didn’t cut down many trees.

“The first thing that most mass builders do when they come in

and take a piece of land is cut down all the trees and then try to adapt and reconfigure the land so they can get as many houses on that piece of land as possible,” he says. “Well, that disrupts the eco-system because it increases storm water runoff and causes a lot of flooding. So, what I do is take a lot and design a house to fit the lot so that I don’t disrupt the ecosystem of that lot, and so I’m able to keep the trees and surroundings as natural as possible.”

Ledbetter, 67, says one of his biggest challenges in building was getting people to believe that he knew what he was doing, so he surrounded himself with experienced professionals to learn the ropes of the business and develop the confidence of others. Re-zoning was also a major issue. In fact, Ledbetter had to scrap his original design plan because of conflicts with the community.

“When we started the subdivision, the design had a combination of single-family and multi-family houses, which I thought would have been a very nice contrast, but the neighbors put up a major obstacle to the project because they got the impression that I was going to put Section 8 housing

there,” he says. “So, even though the people who sat on the rezoning commission knew it was a good project, I made a decision to abandon that particular design and ended up doing all single-family homes.”

The housing development, called Green Mill, named for the original landowners, gave Ledbetter the experience, contacts, and notoriety he needed to hang out his shingle, and in 1981 he officially launched Sun Space Ltd. Today, the three-employee company has nearly 60 green houses to its credit and between $600,000 and $700,000 in revenue. Ledbetter projects making $2 million to $3 million in 2009.

He says his success in the midst of a deteriorating housing market stems from creating unique homes that are priced to sell. Ranging from $200,000 to $300,000 for a one-acre lot, some homes are outfitted with devices that collect heat from the sun and then store it in the floors to later be released through the home’s interior. Other residences are equipped with systems that circulate water beneath brick floors for a source of heat and rooftop collectors that convert sunlight into electricity. Depending on the amount of energy-efficient equipment used, Ledbetter’s homes can cost as much as $1 million, and despite economic times, he says they do sell.

“There are still people out here looking for houses, but they are not looking for the traditional box. They are looking for something different and especially for something green,” he says.

Ledbetter’s approach to building and his unique designs has captured the attention of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). In fact, he is currently in talks with the organization about a $3 million project to build green office parks in flood plane areas using a special arc design he created. Ledbetter also plans to construct senior housing that will utilize his energy efficient techniques while giving residents the opportunity to become co-owners with other seniors.

“I’ve designed it in a way that you can live there with five other people because each person will have their own one-bedroom townhouse or condominium, but it’s all under one roof so you share the expenses of the care giving and have a very clean environment,” he says. “The nice bottom line to green building, whether at home or work, is that our healthcare costs tend to go down because we don’t get sick as often and we end up cleaning up the air and the spaces in which we live. The whole thing is just very exciting to me.”