Thanks to an army of late-comer home builders, all vying to jump on the latest trend bandwagon, the term “Green Home” has been so overused and ill, defined thereby rendering it confusing and ultimately meaningless to new home shoppers. Let’s face it, to really live in a “Green Home” today you’d have to harvest your own rainwater and store it in a cistern on the roof of your bamboo hut.

LEED for Homes on the other hand, has been virtually invisible to the average consumer. Although the term does have equity with some savvy home buyers, the same ones who are down with all the latest trends in New Urbanism and Sustainable Developments. But, by and large, it’s likely the average new home buyer still doesn’t have a clue as to what it really means. Yet some new home builders continue to tout the fact that their neighborhoods are LEED for Homes certified. That would be fine if the USGBC (US Green Building Council) promoted their LEED for Homes program to the public in a major way. But they don’t right now and it’s still not common knowledge.

Welcome to Old Town Commons, located in Old Town Alexandria, this is EYA’s newest residential neighborhood. And it’s one of the largest LEED for Homes certified neighborhoods in the entire country. So, since we’re a big believer in speaking plain English, we proposed a new way for EYA to talk about the features of current construction best-practices and energy efficiency design to prospective home buyers. “Smart City Living,” is the term we’ve coined to highlight the advantages of buying a new EYA home; and it’s prominently displayed in the sales office as well as a soon-to-launch interactive counterpart for EYA.com. The objective is to translate technical features into tangible homeowner benefits so prospective buyers get a clearer picture of EYA’s holistic approach to “green” building, as well as a better understanding of the advantages that a new EYA home offers.

Smart City Living Display in Sales Office

My six-year old dragged me out of bed on Saturday to make him pancakes, and when we got to the kitchen he noticed I wasn’t wearing my glasses. He looked at me kind of quizzically and said, “Dad, can you even see anything without your glasses?”
“Sure,” I told him, “Everything is just a little fuzzy.”
“Everything?” he asked.
“Yep.”
“Well what about stuff that’s fuzzy to start with?”

It was a pretty good question, I thought. It reminded of several companies I’ve worked with over the years — companies that came to Grafik because their brands weren’t as clearly defined as they could have been.  Consequently, everything seemed hopelessly unfocused.

A semiconductor firm. A social networking site. A real estate developer. In every case, we were able to help these companies develop powerful brands that define their core value externally, as well as internally. We pinpointed what’s central to what they do, and why they do it, so their brand now informs operations and management as much as they marketing and corporate communications.

For these clients and several others, we made all decision-making less fuzzy. Because when it gets right down to it, that’s what branding should do.

Audience: A room full of 300+ men in blue suits.

Average age: 55.

Average net worth: a lot less than last year.

Speakers: a who’s who of luminaries in the real estate investment space. Kettler, Collins, Darby, Rice, Rabb, to name a few.

Topic: What’s up in the Capital Markets in DC ( no not the Caps)

Information Gleaned: Not much. Money is not moving. FDIC is parcelling out a few deals- but they are not very good. No one has money. Everyone believes the real estate cycle will take longer to play out.

Most salient fact: We have to define the “new normal”. “Normal” of 3 years ago is not going to be “normal” now. And we have to reset our expectations to adjust to the new normal.

Most interesting speaker: Lacey Rice of Federal Capital Markets in DC.

Most arrogant speaker: Michael Darby of Monument Realty.

Most telling sign of tight times: no bottled water

Buzz after the event: “Tell me something I didn’t already know.”

Collateral Damage: $15.00 parking fee.

Every once in a while you fall in love with a client—not necessarily because you do work for them—but because they are just so damn smart and so damn nice. That’s the way I feel about EYA—these guys just have their heads screwed on so tightly—and are real strategic thinkers. And their attitudes about how to work with us as partners—not vendors—makes us feel completely vested in their successes and their failures. We care passionately about how well they do because they have allowed us in to our inner circle. So when they were chosen as America’s Best builder 2 years in a row—we felt as excited as they probably did.

It’s always nice when someone recognizes the good work being done by one of our clients. As he references the Arts District Hyattsville development, Richard Layman, from the Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space blog, points out that the ultimate goal of any mixed use urban development is to promote life within walking distance.  This is exactly what the smart folks at EYA envision as they plan each development.

Read the full article here.