Architect Peter Twombly and developer Nick Downes check plans for the house. “Green building is gaining traction in the entry-level and commercial markets,” Downes says.

The Providence Journal / Frieda Squires

Luxury-home developer Nick Downes, of Middletown, says that from now on, all of his projects will be designed to meet LEED — Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design — specifications, a set of standards formed by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Downes, whose firm builds just one house a year, said he believes that green design will trump more traditional symbols of status — sheer size and the liberal application of luxury materials — to become the new cachet in the luxury market.

“Green building is gaining traction in the entry-level and commercial markets, but there is also a huge amount of interest at the high end,” Downes, vice president of Aquidneck Fine Properties, reported.

“Luxury greenhomes are the new it house for the wealthy; they are fast replacing the Hummer houses or starter castles that we started to see in the ’80s and ’90s.”

Downes hopes to achieve LEED Gold status for his next project, a 3,000-square-foot modern house on a 4-acre site on Swede Hill in Block Island.

Construction of the house, designed by Newport architect Peter Twombly, is slated to begin in the spring. (The work of Twombly’s Newport firm, Estes/Twombly, is featured in a new book, “Yankee Modern”, published by the Princeton Architectural Press.)

Downes said that he expects to price the house at $4.5 million.

Off East Providence’s Veterans Memorial Parkway, a planned mixed-use development — Village on the Waterfront, which will include 600 condominium and townhouse units — has been registered to attain Silver-level LEED certification.

The site, a former petroleum storage facility operated by Gulf Oil from 1909 to 1984, is owned by Chevron and will undergo an environmental cleanup before next year’s planned groundbreaking.

Governor Carcieri signed an executive order several years ago to require that new state buildings be built to LEED standards.

And in the private sector, LEED is the standard for people who are serious about green building, Downes said.

“There is a fair bit of greenwashing going on in our industry,” he added. “That’s one of the reasons why we have chosen to certify our projects through the USGBC.”

The National Association of Home Builders reported in September that a survey of its members revealed that while interest in green building is significant, most homebuyers are not willing to pay more for green features.

But according to Connie McGreavy, who leads the Rhode Island Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council, “you really can’t afford not to build green.”

McGreavy said it’s a myth that building green means that a house has to be more expensive. Instead, because the LEED certification process necessitates collaboration between all the people who will work on a house before construction begins, “significant cost savings” are often the result, she said.

There are four distinct levels of LEED certification, based on a point-rating system: Certified (formerly Bronze) (40-49 points); Silver (50-59 points); Gold (60-79 points) and Platinum (80 points).

Points are given for green building and design in a number of areas, including sustainable sites, water efficiency, indoor environmental quality, innovation in design, regional priority, construction waste management and materials reuse, and use of renewable energy.

Swede Hill’s modest size for a luxury home is itself a green feature.

One of the USGBC’s stated goals is to promote the building of smaller, more sustainable houses.

The LEED for Homes standard has an adjustment based on home size. Larger houses must score more points to win certification.

Last year, the founder of the USGBC, David Gottfried, his wife, Sara Gottfried, and their two children moved into a 1,500-square-foot LEED Platinum home, a restored 1915 Craftsman bungalow, that is half the size of their previous house.

Swede Hill is planned as a three-bedroom, white cedar-shingled house with a separate guest suite; 14 rooftop solar panels will be placed on the south-facing shed roof of the guest house.

Downes said he’s already put off construction of Swede Hill for a year because of the state of the real estate market. With construction beginning in the spring, and an expected 12-month construction timeline, “that gets us a year and a half away from the current mess,” he said.

Building on spec in the current market may be “a gutsy move,” he added. “But it’s what I do.”

cdunn@projo.com