Sustainable Tulsa House To Be First Of Its Kind In State

The Joinery will be a one-of-a-kind project in Tulsa’s Brady Heights neighborhood or anywhere else in Oklahoma. Property owner Nathan Pickard and architect Molly Jones are creating a first: a two-story brick house which will have the Living Building Certification from the International Living Future Institute.

The house will be sustainably built with sustainable materials; everything that touched the project must be certified. Even the lumber for the concrete forms had to have a certification.

“That was a huge challenge just to find the wood to build our forms with to pour the concrete," said Pickard.

It came from a sustainably-managed forest in Minnesota. All the administrative hoops they’ve had to negotiate to build something that’s never been done here before probably explains why, five year into - it it is still a hole in the ground. But they finally have a little momentum. Bricks for the house will be produced locally.

“The walls will be 12-inches thick.” Jones said.

That will help with temperature control in all seasons. Solar panels will produce all the electricity. They’ll collect and process their own water and waste. Some of the flooring used came from Cain’s Ballroom dance floor.

“We are hoping it will be enough to cover the downstairs,” Pickard said.

Molly Jones is a consultant for NASA on green building and sustainability; she lives in Tulsa and says why not here.

“If we can do it here, we can do it anywhere,” she said.

It will be quite the showcase when it is finished.