Alan J. Green
Chairman, The Green Co., Newton Centre, Mass.
Credit: Bryce Wickmark
Few subdivisions with attached homes dare to promote “privacy.” But that’s the alchemy The Green Co. dares to achieve within the communities it has been developing for more than half a century.
Alan Green, The Green Co.’s chairman, has been building homes since 1953. He sees community design “as a function of the circumstances we’re placed in.” The design for a project in Newcastle, N.H., called Wentworth by the Sea, arose from the need to create a community that would include both oceanfront and inland areas. What separates his company from others, Green contends, is its attention to site selection and planning, and its goal of meshing a community and its natural setting while preserving the surrounding environment.
“We start at the very edge of a site and at the rear of the home, so what we’re trying to preserve flows naturally into the project,” he explains. “You can’t improve on what nature does.” The Green Co. also creates privacy through open interior courtyards and by front- and backyard exposure to natural habitat. At its latest community, The Pinehills in Plymouth, Mass., homes are built on only one side of the street. (Homes there include attached townhouses that start in the $300s and larger custom homes in a new neighborhood called Five Lanterns that start at $1.2 million.)
Credit: courtesy The Green Co.
The Green Co. designed The Pinehills to evoke the atmosphere of an old New England town. And as would be the case in one of those towns, Green takes pride in the fact that “we know every one of our owners.” Sons Tony and Dan now run the company, but Green still calls every customer upon closing. “We work hard at customer service,” he contends, “and it starts from the top down.”