Last week saw the opening of an exciting new development of affordable homes in Oakland.

Ironhorse, a four-story green building, which offers 99 homes ranging from one-bedroom to three-bedroom units, was designed by San Francisco architect David Baker and is part of a larger development, called Central Station, that is reintegrating some 29 acres of abandoned former industrial land into the surrounding residential neighborhood.

Central Station will include a total of more than 1,200 new homes, along with new neighborhood-serving retail and the anticipated restoration of Oakland's historic 16th Street Station. There's a fascinating video here, lots of great history, check it out !

The Ironhorse building curves around a podium-level courtyard with a freestanding community pavilion. Residents enter through an open-air lobby with a breezeway view of the interior landscaping and branch off to a mix of affordable units punctuated by glassed-in winter gardens.

The homes are bursting with eco-credentials and were awarded a 146 points rating by Green Point -- almost triple the number of points needed to qualify. Alameda County also awarded the project a $65,000 grant to install and maintain green roofs in the common areas.

Other environmentally conscious features include solar-domestic hot water, photo-voltaic arrays that supply all electricity for common areas, outdoor furniture made of recycled-material composite lumber and two vegetated swales, which naturally filter and percolate rainwater captured from the roofs into the water table.

If only all new home construction could be this responsible and look so good.