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Renovate and Live Like a Kennedy

Katherine Sharpe — 2010-02-10T16:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Design

Robin Wilson, a designer known for her green homes expertise, will add this spring's release of her latest book "Kennedy Green House: Designing an Eco-Healthy Home from the Foundation to the Furniture" to her impressive resume. The book documents the eco-friendly renovation and redecoration she helped to carry out on the Westchester home of Robert Kennedy, Jr., who has specialized in environmental issues throughout his career as a lawyer. (Kennedy has also written and spoken frequently on environmental issues, and helped the organization Riverkeeper to clean up the Hudson River.) The LEED-certified renovation of his home focused on energy efficiency throughout the structure, and indoor air quality in particular.

We caught up with Ms. Wilson to see what else we could learn about the project--and whether she had any pointers to help the hoi polloi live, and decorate, like the Kennedys.

1. Tell us a little bit about the house, its location, and the extent of the renovations.

The Kennedy private residence is a house located in Mt. Kisco, NY, which is in Westchester County. The house is on a 12-acre property fronting a 30-acre private lake. The land is unique in that there are wetlands, forest, lakefront and field--with a significant amount of biodiversity.

The home was infested with black mold after a flood. After multiple attempts at remediation, the family recognized that their children were becoming ill with pneumonia, asthma and allergies by staying in the home, so they decided to move out of the home into a rental while the renovation took place.

From Fall 2008 to January 2009, the home was rebuilt: It had started out initially as a renovation, but snowballed into a complete rebuild after a wind-storm created a precarious situation. It was rebuilt from the foundation up using eco-friendly materials and methods of construction. The demolition items were recycled where possible, including studs, wood flooring and drywall. The work was done by a unique firm called Green Demolitions.

2. What elements of the renovation were you responsible for?

My team was hired to work with the project manager, architects, builder and the client to ensure that the design protocol for an eco-friendly and LEED certified home was followed. Our role also involved specification of products and obtaining donations for the client. We were able to obtain over $1.3 million worth of donated product from flooring, paint, cabinetry, countertops, etc so that these various vendors would be able to showcase their products with media exposure and to show that these products can work in a tradition home. Our role involved schedules, specifications, design consultation and staging the home for photography.

3. Can you give us a sense of how the LEED-certified renovated home compares to the pre-renovation home, in terms of efficiency?

The original home was a clapboard home, and the new home is a masonry style home with bricks from the Massachusetts brickmaker Stiles & Hart. The new home is powered with solar, geothermal, hybrid hot water and utilizes passive lighting devices called Solatubes, which are present in each closet and in the center hallway on the second level. The Solatubes prevent a power surge each morning compared to a standard home where everyone turns on the lights. The geothermal manifests inside the home with a radiant heating system that keeps the home at a constant temperature year round which lowers heating and cooling costs. And the solar panels collect energy all day and powers a battery converter which makes the electric meter run backwards. The hybrid hot water heater is a backup system that is affordable for most families--and instead of heating a huge tank, or having people run the water to 'warm it up', it provides instant hot water, which can lower water bills.

The insulation in the home is a DOW product which is 35% more efficient and most people recognize that the home must still have great insulation, no matter which products are used, to ensure that there is no energy leakage in the walls and attic space.

The windows are also triple-paned MARVIN windows which prevent heat loss/gain in the home.

4. Part of your book, "Kennedy Green House," is about the selection of energy-efficient, health-promoting appliances and furnishings. I think most people understand what energy efficient appliances are. What are the qualities that make a home furnishing 'green'?

Eco-friendly home furnishings are those which do not add toxins to the indoor air environment. For example, the kitchen cabinetry is custom from Holiday Kitchens and utilizes low-to-no VOC paints and stains, no-added UREA formaldehyde boards and no-formaldehyde glues or adhesives. When the cabinets are delivered, there is no off-gassing (chemical smell) and this can be very helpful for a family with asthma and allergy-sensitive children.

5. What advice would you give to regular homeowners looking to 'decorate like a Kennedy'?

The most important thing for all homeowners is to review the eco-friendly principles: sustainable, renewable, recyclable, non-toxic. For example, you could have a family heirloom that can be re-upholstered or 'renewed' at a carpentry shop (instead of throwing it into the landfill), you could install bamboo flooring (sustainable since bamboo regrows), or you could install recycling bins in your kitchen to encourage the action of separating your items. And most importantly, you can leave your living space non-toxic by removing your shoes so that you don't bring pesticides into your living space--and make sure to use low-to-no VOC paints so that an hour after painting, there is no paint smell.

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Solar House Has Brief Broadway Stint

Katherine Sharpe — 2010-01-29T14:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Design,Lifestyle

Yesterday, a solar house landed in New York's Times Square.

Dubbed the Lumenhaus, the high-tech home is Virginia Tech's award-winning entry in the 2009 Solar Decathlon. It was supposed to remain open to the public through Sunday, but it's Broadway debut was cut short when it was dismantled late last night due to permit issues (thanks, Mayor Bloomberg).

Every two years, the Solar Decathlon descends upon the National Mall in Washington, D. C. Twenty national and international teams of architecture students erect solar-powered houses that they have painstakingly planned, built and transported to Washington. For three weeks this U.S. Department of Energy sponsored competition pits the high-tech homes against each other in areas like architecture, market viability, hot water, appliances, and net metering.

The creators of Lumenhaus say that the 600-square-foot dwelling "delivers a brighter way to live, literally and figuratively." Here are some highlights:

o. Lumenhaus is inspired by Mies Van der Rohe's Farnsworth House, with glass north and south walls to maximize exposure to light. "Independent sliding layers" on the sides of the house move to filter light throughout the day. The team is proud of the house's pavilion-style design, which makes it open and airy where many energy-efficient homes can feel closed off.

o. To make that airiness possible, the house has transparent, sliding panels filled with "aerogel," a super lightweight material that insulates as well as a solid wall would.

o. This is a zero net energy house, meaning that it uses no more energy than it creates. The power comes from a single photovoltaic array on the roof, whose panels tilt to take maximum advantage of the angle of the sun.

o. The Lumenhaus has a computer that manages all of its systems, and gives real-time feedback about its energy consumption, both on-site and remotely.

o. Radiant heating: The concrete floor houses coils that circulate heat gleaned from the earth; in the summer, it makes hot water as a by-product.

o. Net metering: If the house produces more energy than it uses, it can feed power back onto the grid, or homeowners could use that power to, for example, charge up an electric car

o. Lighting: The house is designed not to require electric light during the day. At night, illumination comes from an efficient LED lighting system. Owners will be able to adjust the color temperature of the lights inside, for a warmer or cooler effect.

o. Modular living: The square footage isn't large, but team Virginia Tech calls Lumenhaus a "perceptually generous space." And it's packed with design features to facilitate living small: Sliding doors enclose private spaces or roll away as needed, and a dining-room table on casters can be pushed outside for meals in good weather.

Clearly this eco-themed living space deserves an encore. While many New Yorkers missed the opportunity to tour Lumenhaus, Good Morning America's cheery weatherman, Sam Champion, did not. You can learn more here and here.

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Extend Your Stay in Portland

Katherine Sharpe — 2010-01-27T14:44:00 00:00

Filed under: Design

In the Mississippi Historic District of Portland, Oregon, builders Jeff Gantert and Brad Bloom have put up three tiny, vernacular cottages that are available as rentals on an unusual (but highly likable) basis: for one month at a time.

Gantert and Bloom were inspired by the historical architecture of their neighborhood, and the cottages are built with loving, artistic attention to detail: kitchen wallpaper made from old flour sacks, flattened olive oil tins used to shed rain outside, deep-set windows and doors and built-in bookshelves, among many other architectural touches.

We caught up with Jeff Gantert via email to ask him a few questions about the cottages themselves and the short-term rental business.

Aol: What was your inspiration for the project?

Jeff Gantert: We live in the Mississippi Historic District of Portland, a small district with a large diverse collection of Formal Victorians, Queen Anne style homes, working class houses, small worker cottages and streetcar-era commercial buildings. The two circa 1890 cottages on Mason Avenue up the street were definitely a starting point in our design.

Aol: Where did the cottage designs come from?

JG: Brad and I both designed and built the cottages.

Aol: How many garden cottages are there? When did they open?

JG: There are three cottages, with one in the works for this spring. The Plum Tree cottage was finished in 2002, and the Sassafras and Tupelo cottages in the spring of 2008. The Plum Tree is 500 square feet and the Sassafras and Tupelo are 364 square feet.

Aol: According to your website, each cottage rents for $1,000 a month, and the minimum rental period is a month. Is that still current?

JG: Yes, with variations for the winter and summer seasons.

Aol: How has occupancy been? Is there a waiting list?

JG: Occupancy's been good. The cottages are usually rented, and we have had many people interested in longer term arrangements .

Aol: A month is a pretty long vacation by many peoples' standards. What purposes do you find that people rent for?

JG: Currently we have someone relocating to Portland, someone taking a month-long conflict resolution class, and we have had international visitors interning at several local businesses. Also we have had people who come to visit their families.

Aol: Are you aware of any other boutique rentals available on a similar time frame, in Portland or elsewhere?

JG: I resent the term "boutique rental." Brad and I constructed these living spaces so they would resonate with their inhabitants, not to make something "cute." There do seem to be more and more shorter-term rentals available in Portland. Maybe a sign of our economic time or a shifting population. We also continue to see a migration of people to our area.

See more pictures at the Cottages of Upper Albina website.

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Make Your House a Perfect Zero

Katherine Sharpe — 2010-01-25T13:40:00 00:00

Filed under: Design

For some, the phrase "off the grid" may still conjure up visions of a weather-beaten wood shack with rusted metal on the outside and angry tax evaders within. But that's about change, if two Texas-based architects have anything to do with it.

The Austin American Statesman reported this month that after ten years in the making, architects Scott Specht and Louise Harpman have a plan for a net-zero house that is "shovel-ready."
Specht and Harpman are hoping to find an investor willing to pour $300-350,000 into a prototype of their ZeroHouse. As planned, the two-bedroom house would have 650 square feet of indoor space, with an additional 250 square feet of covered decks. The style is a more outer space than back-woods.

A net-zero building generates as much energy as it consumes over the course of a year. It's an idea that's gaining popularity in building circles, and there are publicly funded programs in the United States (via the Department of Energy's Building America Program) and other countries to explore the possibilities.

Builders can approach zero either by generating power on-site with photovoltaic cells or wind turbines, or by reducing the amount of power they need, say by building smaller, "daylighting" with skylights, super-insulating walls, or constructing to take advantage of passive solar heating effects. Most net-zero projects do a little bit of both, trying to balance a moderate amount of on-site power generation with reduced energy requirements.

Specht and Harpman's ZeroHouse is designed to include photovoltaic installation on the roof, four 550-gallon rainwater cisterns, and a sophisticated composting unit underneath the house. To further mitigate its environmental impact, the house is meant to be built on a low-impact foundation of four steel poles. Because it's essentially on stilts the ZeroHouse can even be built over a shallow body of water.

But $300,000 for a 900-square-foot space (including deck space) isn't cheap-that's more than $300 a square foot.

Critics of net-zero building note that some of the most effective means of reducing a building's energy footprint are among the least flashy. Passive solar design can reduce a building's heating and cooling needs by 70 to 90 percent without any pricey photovoltaic cells. Others point out that the energy used to build such a house usually isn't factored into its net-zero standing.

But even if a house doesn't reach net zero, the technology and design innovations that move us in that direction will save a lot of energy in the long run. So critics aside, if Specht and Harpman find their investor we'll have a chance to try out a promising concept that cries out for testing and refinement in the real world.

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Dome Sweet Dome

Katherine Sharpe — 2010-01-20T12:15:00 00:00

Filed under: Design,News

In 1954, Buckminster Fuller received the U.S. patent for the geodesic dome, a hemi-spherical structure built on a frame of interlocking polygons. (Picture living inside of a giant soccer ball, and you're not far off.) Fuller hoped that geodesic dome structures would catch on big as a solution to the postwar housing crisis.

But like a lot of his designs, (Dymaxion car, anyone?), geodesic domes were never built in the millions that Fuller envisioned. Still, geodesic domes have become the architectural equivalent of a cult favorite film: they found a following among homebuilders and do-it-yourselfers. Geodesic domes are extremely strong and stable, particularly considering their light weight. They can be constructed quickly from modular parts, and they have little surface area relative to how much space they enclose. They create a large indoor space free from columns, walls or other supporting elements. And because a geodesic dome contains no corners, they're said to be fuel efficient as well.

Now the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that a two-bedroom, one-bath geodesic dome is for sale in the city's Lincoln-Larimer neighborhood.

Click through to see this and other domes for sale in the Pittsburgh area.

Buyer beware: The property pictured above, which is a foreclosure owned by Fannie Mae, is said to have a mold problem. Weather-sealing problems are a well-known hazard for geodesic domes-they have a lot of seams between the pieces used to built them. The 1,257-square-foot house at 736 Olivant Place, is going for $36,900. See more pictures on Trulia.

The Post-Gazette notes, "Pittsburgh has just a handful of these ball-shaped houses, so you rarely see one on the market."

In a higher price bracket, there's a geodesic dome for sale in Butler, PA, about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh. That home, a 2-bedroom, 2-bath, 3-story structure on 2.5 wooded acres, is on the market for $169,500, from Tom Stirling at Coldwell Banker. It was constructed in 1991.

North of the city, Slippery Rock, PA, has seven rental apartments set inside a funky geodesic dome built in 1972.

Other geodesic structures in the area include a 10,000 square foot residential dome complex built in 2004-2005 in Murraysville. It belongs to one Rob Thompson (above). Then there's the giant geodesic dome that is the field house at the Community College of Beaver County.

People interested in owning their own round-roofed home can browse the "Domes For Sale" listings maintained by Natural Spaces Domes, a Minnesota company that sells geodesic dome kits.

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Kids Off the Grid: Students Mad for Alternahouses

Katherine Sharpe — 2010-01-06T13:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Design

And you thought the punk house that your friends lived in during the '90s was unique. The New York Times reported Sunday on three students whose housing arrangements smash all previous standards of dorm-room customization.

Brett Butler, age 24, of Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., lives in a teepee (left) that he constructed about 20 minutes from campus. Jake Weller, 19, at Juniata College in central Pennsylvania, makes his home in a modest geodesic dome that he built with the blessing of his dean of students. And Ann Holley, 29, lives with her husband in a 127-square-foot tiny house that she started as a school project on the campus of Alfred University in upstate New York.

But students have long been known for crafting interesting living habitats for themselves, prompted by the twin urges of social idealism and financial limitation. It seems possible that the current economic downturn, coupled with resurgent environmentalism, has created an atmosphere that's especially ripe for experimental living.
And maybe Gen Y is apt to take advantage of that atmosphere: Millennials are famously civic-minded, interested in freedom and flexibility in their lifestyles, invested in a sense of their own uniqueness as individuals, and optimistic about the promise of technology.

Certainly, the Times didn't dig up the only three young people who've gone to great lengths to live in spaces that reflect their social and environmental values (and don't sap their pocketbooks).

Elizabeth Turnbull, an architecture master's student at Yale, spent the summer of 2008 building a tiny house of her own design (below). The Turnbull Tiny House rests on an 8 x 18-foot trailer. Turnbull constructed the house in Byfield, Massachusetts, and towed it to New Haven, where she found hosts willing to let her park and live while she works on her studies. The structure is fitted with solar panels for electricity, a composting toilet, a kitchen, and a sleeping loft.

Libby Kahler, a junior at Berea College in Berea, Kentucky, commutes to school from her home in an off-campus yurt (left). She bought the dwelling from Laurel Nest Yurts in North Carolina, for $2,500.

She cooks on a four-burner propane stove and tells an interviewer for the campus website, "[The yurt] is also 15 feet across, so it's pretty small. But I love it. Actually, my social life is kind of hurting right now because I just run right home after classes are done because it's so peaceful [here]. It's stuck out in the middle of the woods. My neighbors are few and far between. And it's wonderful."

And David Lettero, a graduate student of adult education at Penn State, lived in a 13-foot yurt during his studies, as the director of the Penn State Center for Sustainability. There, he raised 80% of his own food as a four-season gardener, gleaned electricity from the wind and the sun, and whittled his possessions down to a super-manageable level.

Whether the motives in a given case are economic, environmental, individualistic -- or a combination of all three -- it seems remarkable how much positive attention schools are pouring into their students' living experiments. Libby Kahler, at Berea, says that constructing a yurt has raised her stature on campus. "In some ways," she says, "[living in the yurt has] made more of my professors likely to believe that I can accomplish something. So I'm looking into doing some design and building projects around campus next year and I think that's kind of helped to improve what people think I'm capable of."

David Lettero's homestead was actually part of an official Penn State program (left). Ann Holley's tiny house began as a school project, and Jake Weller was surprised to receive the dean's permission and a special exemption from student fees to build his dome.

Moral of the story? It could be that if you're a young person with a hankering to go off the grid, it may be a great time to pitch your project to an institution of higher learning near you.

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