When a family moves to Shaker, there’s a typical scenario that unfolds: new family settles in to their 80-plus year-old home and neighbors stop by with friendly greetings and maybe a well-meaning list of recommendations for handyman services, electricians, and boiler-repair specialists. But Richard and Aparna Bole’s May 2014 move to Shaker wasn’t typical. For starters, their house on Southington Road isn’t a century-old Shaker house adorned with leaded glass windows and vocal radiators. It’s brand new. It also happens to be green, as in environmentally friendly, sustainable, and cost efficient. So if it wasn’t the quality and charm of the housing stock that led the Boles to purchase an empty sidelot across from Boulevard School, why did this couple with two young children who had been living in a 2,000-square-foot loft apartment near downtown Cleveland choose Shaker? The answer: Location, location, location. “The community is transit friendly and our walkability to Shaker Square makes our home’s location the greenest thing about the house,” explains Aparna Bole. She regularly walks to Shaker Square to catch the bus to University Circle, where she holds a three-fold job that’s an extension of her green-living value system. She serves as the sustainability manager for University Hospitals Health Systems, the medical director for Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, and an assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University Medical School. What’s more, when she’s not at University Hospitals’ main campus, she takes the Blue Line Rapid to University Hospitals’ Management Services Center in Shaker. “This accessibility has been a great asset in terms of green living,” she says. That the Boles chose to build their innovative home in Shaker is just as much a testament to their commitment to sustainability as it is validation of the City’s openness to new housing technology. ShAKer LIFE | SUMMER 2015 37
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