News photo by Dan Trittschuh Worthington Kilbourne High School technology education teacher Roger Beck (left) and his Home B.A.S.E. students recently won the President's Award from the Columbus Landmark Foundation. They are working on the frame for an energy-efficient home to be constructed in downtown Columbus. Students pictured include: Lindsey Freel, Megan Link, Vincent Aebi, Carllie Cregot, Stephanie West, Jesse Lycan, Cody Chapman, Jessica Ream, Tom Elliott, Cassie Thompson, Anne Weale, Alex Hancock, Eugene Braig, Steven Clayton, Jimmy Proctor, Alex Allie and Will Bleum.

Home B.A.S.E students are busy constructing walls for their 10th house -- an energy-efficient home that already has won a major award.

On Oct. 12, the Columbus Landmark Foundation gave its President's Award to Worthington Kilbourne High School's Low income LEED Home project, a collaboration of the school's Home B.A.S.E program, the Columbus Green Building Forum and the Columbus Housing Partnership.

"We are building one of the most environmentally sustainable and energy-efficient green homes in the state of Ohio, if not the nation," said Roger Beck, technology education teacher.

The house will be built at 258 N. 21st St. in downtown Columbus.

The B.A.S.E. in Home B.A.S.E. stands for Building Academic Skills and Experiences, Beck said.

LEED means Leadership in Environment and Energy Design. LEED-certified buildings are those built with a "whole-building approach to environmental sustainability, which includes sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality," according to the U.S. Green Building Council Web site, usgbc.org.

The college preparatory Home B.A.S.E. course combines senior-year English and government with technology education. It brings students through a study of poverty and poverty housing, finding solutions to poverty by forming committees and working on bills to learn how government works, then designing and building one house per year for a low-income family, Beck said.

Home B.A.S.E. seniors have built nine houses through Habitat for Humanity in the past nine years.

Breaking ground on the 10th house also will mean breaking new ground in the building industry, Beck said.

"I believe we are the only high school building program in the nation doing this level of energy-efficient building," Beck said. "Yale University's architecture students are doing something similar, but we are doing it at a high school level and at a more green sustainable and energy-efficient level."

Beck said the Columbus Green Building Forum has been working with his students over the summer to create a blueprint for the house and to help them design the energy systems and durability systems.

When the house is finished, the Columbus Housing Partnership will sell the house to a low-income family, Beck said.

Beck said "building green" doesn't necessarily have to be any more expensive than building an ordinary house.

"When we decided on a partnership with the Columbus Green Building Forum, we had a three-year plan," Beck said. "Year One is this year, and we said we would try to make this the best and most energy-efficient home we could, so it has a lot of bells and whistles, but the basic concept of this kind of house doesn't need to be much more expensive than current home-building."

The house will have solar panels and a complete insulation package for the foundation walls, 2-by-6-foot walls, high-performing windows, and water, moisture and mold mitigation techniques, Beck said.

Funds to build the house are being donated by local businesses such as Contract Lumber. The city of Columbus is helping with subsidies and a construction loan, Beck said.

Beck said next year's plan is to build a house that is "green, sustainable and high-performing," but also affordable at current market prices.

The third year of the plan is to build a "zero-energy" home.

Beck said 20 seniors make up the Home B.A.S.E. program this year.

"Building a LEED building is huge in the building industry," Beck said. "The Lazarus building Downtown will eventually be a LEED project. Our house is a pilot project for the state of Ohio and we think it could possibly earn the highest rating in the LEED rating system, and only a handful of buildings earn that rating."

The progress of the house can be followed at the Web site http://homebase07. blogspot.com.