Solhaus Apartments

Greiner was brought in to provide Pre-Construction and Construction services on Solhaus, an apartment complex at the heart of the University of Minnesota campus with forward-thinking green/sustainable features. Solhaus has local owners–including present and former U of M students and professors–committed to building thoughtfully for the future.

The Solhaus project represents a clean-up of the former Gopher Oil Superfund site, which has polluted the water table and neighboring properties for over 80 years and is the culmination of a three-year collaboration between a private developer, the city of Minneapolis, Hennepin County, DEED, and the MPCA. Solhaus exemplifies a transformation from industrial waste site to 75 units of sustainable green housing.

Some of the sustainable design elements include:

• Organic trash disposal
• A rainwater cistern
• Dual flush toilets
• A parking matrix system
• A green roof and terraces
• Convenient bike storage
• Passive solar design
• An on-site Hour Car
• Electric vehicle stalls
• LED and fluorescent lighting
• Locally sourced construction materials

Solhaus is so much more than any other campus apartment building. Solhaus is addressing the lack of high-quality housing for the undergrad and MBA students in the middle of Stadium Village. This has been evident through the high volume of internet/model traffic and rental agreements.

Some of the apartment building features include:

• Heated and secured parking
• An exercise room
• A fireside study for all residents and guests
• Building-wide Wi-Fi
• Cell phone operated door entrance system
• Recycling and organic composting on every floor
• Granite surfaces
• Large open room layouts with floor-to-ceiling windows
• Natural textures, contemporary colors, cutting-edge details, and lots and lots of light

Working diligently with the tight schedule and a zero-lot-line site, the team worked through many difficult challenges, such as the re-mediating of 20,000 tons of contaminated soils, a winter construction, aging city sewer, and water connections, and having only 130 feet of access to one side of the building.