Austin Area’s Luxury Living Goes Green

Thursday, April 10, 2008
Posted by Healthy Child

By Melanie Spencer
AMERICAN-STATESMAN

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Imagine a house designed to reduce energy consumption, improve health and minimize environmental impact. It would have these features: pressurization for positive air outflow that pushes out allergens; an open floor plan for parents to keep an eye on curious toddlers; strategically placed windows to maximize natural daylight; and low-maintenance finishes with low or no volatile organic compounds to help reduce toxic chemicals.

Los Angeles-based investor Stanley Lerman chose Rollingwood in which to build two such houses that are nearing completion. Lerman's development company, Jivaka, teamed up with the California-based nonprofit organization Healthy Child Healthy World. And if the two entities have their way, these kinds of projects will become the standard in home building.

Luxury green homes might sound to some like an oxymoron. After all, isn't scaling back a part of being green?

"This is a very good, very sound capitalistic society," says Austin architect Peter Pfeiffer. "Are people really going to stop building big homes because they want to be environmentally sound? What I'm trying to do is introduce people to the fact that you can live well and live green."

Lerman, an accountant by trade and a certified yoga instructor, says in his company's mission statement that he builds "tranquil, peaceful, healthy, ecologically designed, attractive shelters that serve as a sanctuary from the stresses and toxins of modern-day life."

A team of green-minded Austinites, including architects Pfeiffer, Alan Barley and Steven Brim, all of Barley & Pfeiffer Architects, and designer Ed Martens, joined the project with Lerman and Healthy Child Healthy World (whose mission is to educate and promote policicie related to healthy, nontoxic environments for children). Barley & Pfeiffer Architects is an Austin firm that is nationally recognized for its environmentally responsive and energy-efficient design.

For the past three years, Healthy Child Healthy World has enlisted Pfeiffer to give occasional talks across the country about green building and leaned on him to contribute to the book "Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating A Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home" by the organization's executive director, Christopher Gavigan ($25.95, Penguin Group).

The two houses in Rollingwood top out at 4,023 square feet and 3,891 square feet. Their size and projected list prices of $2.5 million apiece ensure that the houses are not for the average home buyer. The houses are smaller than average for the neighborhood, where new homes are usually 5,000 square feet or more.

And since it's unlikely that Rollingwood will become a hotbed for tiny, energy-efficient dwellings, the hope is that these houses, which are on track for five-star ratings from Austin Energy's Green Building Program, will act as showcases for green design and catalysts for change.

"Ten years ago, spray foam insulation was expensive and weird, and now it's becoming standardized," Pfeiffer says. "The reality is that (luxury homes) are the laboratory for the bulk of the housing industry."

These particular laboratories are easily dream houses for anyone with children or with allergies or sensitivities to chemicals, pets and more. Many of the green and energy-efficient materials lend themselves to a healthy environment, plus employ the standards promoted by Healthy Child Healthy World: making the indoor air quality as healthy as it can be.

A breath of fresh air

According to the Environmental Protection Agency publication "The Inside Story: A Guide to Indoor Air Quality," research shows that "the air within homes and other buildings can be more seriously polluted than the outdoor air in even the largest and most industrialized cities."

Indoor pollutants can include gas, wood and tobacco products; building materials and furnishings, such as "certain pressed wood products" and wet carpet; household cleaning and maintenance products; personal care products and pesticides. High temperatures and humidity can increase the concentrations of indoor pollutants, adding to the risk in places such as Central Texas.

With these factors in mind, Barley and Pfeiffer implemented several strategies to improve the indoor air quality of the Rollingwood houses.

For example, Pfeiffer says, the No. 1 source of air pollution in American homes is the garage, which captures car exhaust and is often a storage space for toxic household, home-improvement and garden chemicals. So both houses have detached garages.

Another tool is ventilation at the source of pollution. Both houses have bathroom, kitchen and dryer exhaust fans with efficient ducting. They will also have front-loading washing machines, which aid in water conservation. And don't forget the positive outflow pressurization mentioned earlier, which reduces allergens.

Also, it's important to reduce moisture and condensation inside and out. Pfeiffer says absorbent surfaces such as porous stucco, brick and stone (even Texas' beloved native limestone) might not be the best choices for exterior coverings in this region. The two Rollingwood homes do have some stucco, because of the city's building codes. But if the architects had their way, metal siding, which is used on much of the exteriors, would have been everywhere.

"Al and I both like metal siding," Pfeiffer says. "It sheds moisture and doesn't absorb.

"It's also made from a lot of recycled metals," Barley says. "You put it up once and never mess with it, and it releases heat quickly."

Additional precautions are careful house-wrapping (using a waterproofing material called MiraDri) and large roof overhangs that help keep the exterior dry and reduce the possibility of condensation in the walls. Once again, this is especially important in Austin's humid climate because moisture naturally gravitates toward cool, dry air (and you know how much we love our air conditioning).

These are just a few of the systems in place for better air quality, and many of them work double-duty to aid in energy efficiency and sustainability. Features such as the deep overhangs not only look good and keep the house dry, but also shade the windows to help cool the house and deflect the sun from the stucco, which means it can be painted less often.

Lerman chose the Austin area for this project, his first in the United States, because the climate and topography remind him of his native Zimbabwe and becauseof Austin Energy's highly respected green building program.

Form and function

Once unglamorous things such as moisture control and air quality are covered, it's time to enjoy some of the sexier aesthetics and comforts afforded by these contemporary, holistically designed homes. Everything from placement and orientation on the lots to the paint on the walls was carefully considered by the architects and the designer.

"We realized we'd have to place the houses carefully," Pfeiffer says. "We placed them up to the trees, so that the windows are shaded to minimize solar gain issues and to maximize access to prevailing breezes."

Privacy was also a concern because the two houses share one lot. (The original house was demolished, and the materials were either donated or recycled.) The solution was to place the two L-shaped houses with the long part of the structures facing each other (with high windows) and the inside of the L facing away into courtyard-style yards.

The architects avoided building the houses with flat roofs, which can leak. Even though the roofs look flat, they are sloped, and "retain that sculptural, boxy quality," Barley says.

Large expanses of windows often go hand-in-hand with this type of contemporary design. The windows not only look good from a design standpoint, they also bring in natural light and breezes. The windows also afford views of the yards and pools from many angles, which is essential when children are in the equation.

Each house has a pool that will be equipped with an electrically operated cover, both for child safety and to save energy as a passive-solar heat collector. This will reduce the amount of time filtration equipment runs by 30 percent to 60 percent. The pools also will have ozone filtration systems, which are more effective and healthier than chlorine and use less water.

For the landscaping, the plan is to use indigenous plants and trees, which require less watering and maintenance, and organic vegetable and herb gardens that will not be treated with chemical fertilizers or pesticides.

According to the EPA, research shows that exposure to pesticides can be more harmful to children "because their internal organs are still developing and maturing and their enzymatic, metabolic and immune systems may provide less natural protection than those of an adult." Children also are at risk because they often play in areas where pesticides have been applied, and they put toys and objects in their mouths.

Moving inside, the designs feature open, linear, one-room-deep floor plans. This is good for ventilation and allows for a smaller house, as public living areas open onto one another.

"We made the kitchens the center of the action," Pfeiffer says.

The kitchen command centers will feature cabinets manufactured by the European company ALNO using nontoxic paints and lacquers and recycled, regenerated and sustainable wood from certified resources. All of the chosen appliances are extremely energy-efficient, including the Fagor five-plate induction cooktops (the surface heats only the base of the cookware).

Martens says that because the designs for the houses are similar, he tried to find distinctive interior finishes. For example, one house will have manufactured quartz countertops and high-fire ceramic tile, and the other will offer granite countertops and natural stone tile. Also, the lighting selections will be vastly different.

"These are spec homes, not custom to a single customer," Martens says. "So, I wanted to make a definitive statement."

The floors will vary from bamboo, a sustainable grass with natural antibacterial and antimicrobial properties (used mainly upstairs), to diamond-polished concrete and exposed aggregate, which is made from mixing stones with concrete for a terrazzo-style look. For the walls, Martens will use Sherwin-Williams water-based paints with no volatile organic compounds in a light, minimal color palette.

It was important for Martens that the interior finishes not only be as nontoxic as possible but also attractive.

"No, you don't have to live in a tiki hut to live green," he says. "These are really well-put-together houses. It's a forum to show who makes these products."

Which brings us full circle. You can look at these houses as another contribution to consumerism and rising housing costs or, as Martens says, as a forum for change. The attitude is, if you're going to live large, at least make those big, upscale houses healthier, greener and more energy-efficient.

"It's luxury living, with less guilt," Pfeiffer says.

; 912-2519

Party and tours

To see the houses at 502 Riley Road in Rollingwood and learn more about Heathy Child Heathy World, attend a sneak peek cocktail party and fundraiser. The event will be April 19 and features live music by Rodney Crowell. Tickets are $175. The houses also will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. April 20-27 for the HCHW Home Tour. Tickets are $15; free for children. Proceeds from the sneak peek party and home tour will benefit Healthy Child Healthy World (http://www.healthy child.org <http://child.org/> ). Call 895-9530.