Green Is... Conscientious

The challenge: Grant a homeowner’s wish for a small carbon footprint without skimping on square footage or style.

Sally Sakin is the first to admit that she and her husband Craig had very different ideas about what their home in Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley should look like.

“He wanted something more dark and rustic, but I wanted bright, open, airy spaces that frame the spectacular views of Mt. Sopris on one side and the stunning red rock vistas on the other,” she says.
There were, however, two key goals about which the transplanted New Yorkers were in total accord: their residence would be environmentally conscious and thoughtfully designed to meet the needs of Arden, their 17-year-old daughter who has cerebral palsy.

“Because it’s a large house, the Sakins insisted on doing everything possible to offset their carbon footprint,” says architect Kyle Webb of Vail-based K.H. Webb Architects, who incorporated solar panels to heat the domestic hot water, a gray-water-reclamation system, and a rainwater-reclamation system that channels storm water from the roof to use for irrigating the landscape.

The couple’s resolve is apparent throughout their mountain-contemporary home. After agreeing that the palette would consist of rustic materials with clean lines, they selected reclaimed spruce siding, standing-dead timbers, zinc paneling, concrete and Colorado sandstone, all assembled under an ultra-durable zinc roof. To control the amount of heat lost and gained through the home’s floor-to-ceiling windows, Webb specified double-glazed, low-E windows that are treated with a special sun-modulating coating. “The walls are super-insulated with cellulose, and there’s extensive cross-ventilation for natural cooling,” he says. The design is so efficient, in fact, that the home’s supplemental air-conditioning system has never been used.

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