Architect Lutah Marie Riggs, a pioneer in her profession, graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1919 and established a practice in Santa Barbara, Calif. Her career spanned several decades and her devotion to quality products resulted in numerous outstanding residential and commercial projects such as the Lockwood Cabin at Lake Arrowhead, Calif, the Vedanta Temple and expansion to the El Paseo historic complex both in Santa Barbara.
Built in 1951 with floor-to-ceiling walls of sliding glass, vaulted ceilings, Santa Barbara sandstone hearth & terrazzo flooring, an Eat-in chef’s kitchen. Rolling lawns, ornamental gardens & Japanese-inspired courtyards that provide privacy, this is undoubtedly one of The Hamilton Co’s favorite homes ever.
There is a separate studio suite & guesthouse. 3 bed 3.5 baths located in the heart of Montecito’s Golden Quadrangle on close to 3 flat gorgeous acres – every last bit of detail has been restored to perfection in this elegant Montecito Modern residence.
The Hamilton Co. has a passion for Modern Architecture and its bastion of greats including Schindler. When we saw the How House in Silverlake go on the market, we had to share it with you! Four bedrooms and two and a half bath of pure genius. This 1925 house has been fully restored and is a symmetrical gem. Concrete, redwood and glass create axis corners from which you get simultaneous indoor and outdoor perspectives. Mastery offered at 4.995 million.
Between the economic meltdown of recent years and the push for green buildings, the desire to save energy, water and money in our homes is more popular than ever. Fortunately, greening your home doesn’t have to be time consuming or expensive. We caught up with renowned 40-year-old Green Architect Eric Corey Freed, author of “Green$ense for the Home” for his list of simple things you can do to turn your home into a lean, green, efficient machine.
Change your light bulbs already! How many environmentalists does it take to change a light bulb? There are several answers to this joke (none of them that funny), but the real answer is: “all of them.” Everyone should be swapping their burnt out incandescent bulbs with energy efficient compact fluorescent (CFL) ones. Upgrading your bulbs is one of the simplest, but one of the most important, things you can do to save energy in your home.
In your home, lighting accounts for nearly 30 percent of all of your electricity use. By using compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs, you can cut lighting costs by 30 to 60 percent, while improving the quality of the light and reducing environmental impact at the same time.
An 8-pack of typical CFL bulbs can be found online for $10 to $12 compared to half that for traditional incandescent bulbs. Energy Star offers up to $2 rebates through your local power company or at to www.energystar.gov. Retailers like Home Depot and Ikea periodically show their Green spirit by swapping bulbs.
Convince your toilet to use less water.
More water is consumed per person in the US than in any other country. More than a quarter of all of the water used inside the home is flushed down the toilet.
Low-flow toilets are required in California, but most states do not yet have these regulations. But before you run out and replace your existing toilets, there are simple and effective things you can do to trick your old toilet to use less water, from flush adapters to flusher adjustments and tank tricks. And when the time comes to replace your working toilets, make sure you buy a low-flow or dual-flush model.
Wash out an empty 2-liter beverage bottle and fill it about halfway with sand, marbles, or small pebbles. Fill it the rest of the way with water and tightly seal the cap.
Go to your toilet and lift the lid on the tank. Slip the bottle into the tank as far from the valve in the bottom as possible. Make sure it can stand up by itself. Replace the tank lid. The bottle takes up volume in the tank, saving half a gallon on every flush and thousands of gallons of drinking water a year.
Rather than replace your entire toilet, a conversion kit can transform your toilet into a dual-flush model. Push one button and the dual-flush uses only 0.8 gal. per flush for liquid waste. For solid waste, push the second button and the full 1.6 gal. is used. Products like the EcoFlush from Brondell cost under $100 and install in minutes.
In addition, a wide array of toilet rebates are available to cover half your cost. Check out Toilet Rebate to find programs in your area.
Use Less Water in the Shower. Showers add up to nearly 20% of all indoor water usage and are the largest users of hot water. By simply installing a low-flow showerhead, you can save up to 4,000 gallons of water annually, and for every gallon of hot water you can save, that’s gas or electricity you don’t need to use to heat it.
If your average shower is 10 minutes long, upgrading your old showerheads to a low-flow model will save 25 to 55 gallons of water for every shower you take, and potentially shave 30% off utility bills!
Showerheads bearing the WaterSense® logo indicate models with the highest standard of water efficiency. The seal was developed by the EPA in 2006 to alert consumers of water-efficient appliances. By switching from the (Federally mandated) 2.5 gallons per minute (gpm) showerhead to one with 1.5 gpm, you can reduce shower water usage by 40%. You could save 5% to 7% off your energy bill, which translates into $10 to $20 monthly.
Slay those Vampire Loads. The appliances and equipment in our homes are overachievers at their jobs. They sit in standby, always ready to come to life at a moment’s notice. If something is plugged into the wall, even if it’s not on, it draws electricity. We call this demand of energy “phantom loads” or, more appropriately, “vampire loads,” since they suck energy. While the amount of power used is relatively small, they can add up to more than 10% of your electricity bill.
There are several simple ways to slay vampire loads:
Unplug: You could simply unplug any appliance with a standby light.
Power Strips: A power strip allows you to plug in several items that are controlled by a single switch. This allows you to flip the switch off when not needed.
Smart Strips: New “smart” power strips are available that sense when power is being drawn and shut off automatically.
Terra Pass, Wattstopper, andSmartStripall carry a variety of reliable smart power strips, and can be ordered online. Smart strips cost $15 to $30 and do all the work for you once you install them so you don’t have to think about it. A typical house may need three or four strips to cover the computer and TV areas. Even the largest house should be able to resolve their issues for less than $150 and will be paid back in the first year or so.
Install a Programmable Thermostat. The old-fashioned thermostat is a fairly dumb device. It switches on a heater when the temperature drops below a set degree and turns the heater off once the temperature rises back above that setting. So the heat comes on no matter what time of day it is, likely wasting energy while you sleep or when you’re not even home.
Programmable thermostats start at around $30 and can go as high as $150; most homes will only need one or two units. SoCal Edison will give you up to $100 to cover the cost and installation of a new programmable thermostat, making it virtually free.
Don’t put that old fridge in your hot garage.
If you’ve replaced an old refrigerator with a new, energy efficient model, you may have put that old one in the garage as a backup or for extra storage. Unfortunately, a hot garage is not a great place for it. The extra heat forces that old fridge to work that much harder to stay cool, causing it to use up to twice the energy of your new kitchen fridge. If you must have a second fridge, see if there is a cool pantry you can fit it instead.
Weatherize those Windows. While the walls of your home are insulated, the largest source of energy loss in your home are your windows. Thin sheets of glass are terrible insulators and the edges of the windows typically leak air. Simply weatherizing—sealing the cracks and leaks around your windows and exterior doors—can have an immediate impact on your energy savings and can be completed in an afternoon.
Improperly sealed windows and doors account for more than 50 percent of the air leaking out of the home. If every home in the United States were sealed, enough energy would be saved to provide heating and cooling to nearly 9 million homes every year. It would eliminate 6.5 million tons of CO2 from the atmosphere, the equivalent of taking more than a million cars off the road.
Never buy bottled water again. We are bottled water addicts. In the US, we consume 6.9 billion gallons of the stuff a year, filling some 30 billion of those little plastic bottles. It takes 1.5 million barrels of oil to produce all of that plastic, enough to fuel 100,000 cars for a year. Ironically, it takes three to four times the amount of water to make the bottle than actually fits into the bottle. Sadly, only around 20% of all these billions of plastic water bottles are recycled, leaving the rest to fall into landfills, along the sides of our roads, and into our oceans. Peter Gleick, director of the Pacific Institute, says the true cost of bottled water is “like filling up a quarter of every bottle with oil.”
A water filter can solve the eco-issues of buying bottled water and remove your concerns over the quality of your tap water. You may already have a small water filter in your home. But we can go one step further—a whole-house filter will purify every drop of water coming into your home.
Filters range in price from $30 to $200. Installing a whole-house filter may require plumbing help, so you might have to spend another $50. A whole-house filter is less than a penny per gallon.
Install a solar powered clothes dryer (Clothesline). In the good-old days before mechanical clothes washers, people scrubbed clothing by hand on a washboard. It was backbreaking, tiresome work. Hanging the clothes to dry was the easy part compared with the knuckle-scraping efforts of washing. Today, 80% of households have a washer and dryer, but this convenience comes at a price.
Electric clothes dryers eat up 10% of a home’s energy. Each load of laundry gives off around 5.6 lb. of carbon dioxide per load. That adds up to more than 2,000 pounds of CO2 a year just from drying clothes.
If you decide to keep that old energy hog of a dryer, be sure to clean the lint filter before every use. Cleaning the filter increases the airflow and energy efficiency of the dryer. A clogged lint filter forces your dryer to use up to 30% more energy.
Compost and Recycle. The average American produces 4.6 lb. of trash a day, which totals up to 251.3 million tons a year. Landfills pollute our water, take up enormous amounts of space, and (surprise, surprise) no one wants to live near them. Most people don’t realize the biggest problem with landfills is the emissions they generate, namely methane and carbon dioxide gas, which contribute to global warming. By composting and recycling, we can reduce the trash in landfills and do long-lasting good for our environment.
Composting also benefits your lawn and garden. Spread nutrient-rich compost instead of store-bought mulch, and you’ll see a change in your plants’ appearance within weeks.
Methane and carbon dioxide emissions from landfills are responsible for 3.8% of the U.S.’s contribution to global warming. Last year, recycling reduced the country’s carbon emissions by 54 million tons, equivalent to taking nearly 9 million cars off the road.
Cool down your roof.
There’s a reason you don’t wear black clothing in the summer… and your home should do the same thing. By putting a white or reflective roof on your home, you can cut the temperature on the roof the 70 degrees, reducing the strain on your poor, over worked air conditioner.
Flush the hot air out of the attic.
If you have an attic, it get’s pretty hot up there. Flush out that hot air with a solar powered attic fan. These simple fans draw the hot air out and cool down the attic, further reducing the strain on your air conditioner.
While you’re up there anyway… insulate.
While you’re up in the attic installing a fan, you should also insulate. Adding more insulation is simple to do and you’ll feel an immediate difference in the rest of the house. Insulation is like chocolate, the more you have, the better.
Enough with the lawns.
Lawns may look nice, but they come with a huge, hidden pricetag. Up to 60 percent of your household water ends up being used on your lawn. At a time of global water shortages and persistent droughts across the country, the idea of watering your lawn several times a day is wasteful. Instead, plant drought tolerant plants and desertscaping. They need only minor care and maintenance as they thrive in the right climate.
Heat your pool with the sun.
Despite our hot summer days, our cool winter nights will put a chill on your pool. Most of us have pool heaters installed, but they use energy and cost too much for daily use. Solar pool heating is simple, reliable and has been in use for decades. Since it only needs to warm the water slightly, solar pool heating systems are less complicated than full domestic solar water heating systems. This affordable system can cut your pool heating bill by anywhere from 50 – 100 percent.
Plaster walls are cooler.
Instead of paint, you may want to cover your walls with plaster. Interior plaster is more attractive than flat paint, plus it keeps the surface of the walls remarkably cool, making your home more comfortable. Earthen plasters, such as American Clay, provide a beautiful pattern and depth on your walls. Made from natural clays and pigments, these healthy finishes are a luxurious improvement over the flat look of paint.
Shade or tint those windows.
You tint your car windows, you wear sunglasses, so why not give your house the same comfort. Provide shading or window tinting on all of your south and west facing windows. You’ll feel the difference immediately and save money on your air conditioning bill.
Change those air conditioner filters.
Change your air conditioning filters monthly. Regularly changing those filters will shave 5 percent off your AC bill.
Solar is obvious.
Put sunlight to good use and install solar panels. Don’t install solar until you’ve tackled these other energy efficiency projects first, and lowered the amount of energy you need. Solar panels have been around for 70 years and convert sunlight into electricity. With rebates and local incentives, the price is much less than you think. Expect a 5-7 year payback, which makes solar a no brainer. Helpful tip: the panels don’t necessarily need to go on your roof; they could be hidden in the landscape.
Eric Corey Freed, LEED AP, Hon. FIGP, is Principal of organicARCHITECT, an architecture and consulting firm in California, with nearly 20 years of experience in green building.
Eric co-developed the Sustainable Design programs at the Academy of Art University and University of California Berkeley Extension. He is on the boards of Architects, Designers & Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR), Green Home Guide and West Coast Green, as well as the advisory boards of nearly a dozen other organizations.
He was the founding Chair of Architecture for The San Francisco Design Museum and one of the founders of ecoTECTURE: The Online Journal of Ecological Design. He is a regular contributor for GreenerBuildings.com, Luxe, Natural Home, Metropolitan Home and dozens of other publications. Eric lectures around the country at 40+ conferences a year, and his work has been featured in Dwell, Metropolis, Town & Country, Natural Home and Newsweek. He has been seen on television on Fox News, HGTV, The Sundance Channel and PBS.
When Eric was just 25 years old, noted architect and critic Philip Johnson described him as “one of the real brains of his generation”. Today, Eric continues the tradition of “Organic Architecture”, first developed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Eric is the author of four books, including “Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies” (John Wiley & Sons), a best seller with 100,000 copies in print. His latest books, “Sustainable School Architecture” and “Green$ense for your Home” were released in 2010.
Eric is considered a leader in the field; named by San Francisco Magazine “Best Green Architect” in 2005 and “Best Visionary” in 2007; and “Green Visionary” by 7×7 Magazine in 2008.
MORE INFO ON ERIC:
www.rkeytex.com
The Hamilton Co. is a fan of Santa-Barbara based Young Construction run by brothers Bob and David Young. Natives of the area, they’ve built a reputation where their passion for their hometown shows through as well as their personal involvement in making sure every home seamlessly fits into its environment. Although the firm’s talents aren’t confined to one style, our biggest admiration lies in the custom Modern homes they’ve helped construct over the past decade, including one of our all time favorites- The Padaro Lane House.
We spoke with Bob Young about Modern design and life in Santa Barbara.
HAMILTON: We are really in awe of your work in Modern Homes. Where are these people coming from who are looking for Modern architecture in a region where Spanish Colonial has always been the signature cornerstone?
YOUNG: Our clients come from all over the country. Santa Barbara, as you know, is a very attractive place to live. It appears to me that Modern Architecture is becoming more mainstream as a hip style that more people are identifying with. People love the design but also key things like Modernism’s large expanses of glass that allow for more transparency in accessing the incredible views we have throughout the area. I think another attraction to Modern design is that it lends itself well to a sustainable lifestyle. For instance, it’s a lot easier to incorporate a photovoltaic system into a modern design than something perhaps more traditional in style. And, I think people involved with modern design may find it more exciting, creative and “one of a kind”.
HAMILTON: Are there any specific considerations that are in line with merging Modern Design into the Santa Barbara and Montecito environment and/or aesthete?
YOUNG: I wouldn’t say there are any specific considerations or limitations with Modern Design that don’t also apply to more traditional styles. I think with all projects, you need to respect the land and site development and always have an eye towards a flawless execution regardless of style.
HAMILTON: What do you love most about living here?
YOUNG: That list would be long and diverse. In a nutshell, the opportunities available to us to recreate and be involved with some of the best architecture in the world is huge. My wife and I travel quite a bit and have seen a lot of beauty around the world, but when we return to Santa Barbara, we remember how fortunate we are.
HAMILTON: What inspired you to get involved with Modern Architecture?
YOUNG: In my first year of college I began taking architectural classes thinking this would become my profession. It wasn’t, but during my 2nd semester I went to work for the summer for a well-known Palos Verdes builder named Bob Halderman. During a 6-year period working for Bob, I had the opportunity to help construct several Modern all wood homes. Bob’s attention and appreciation to detail and quality was ingrained in me and excites me to this day. Then, in 1979 I met architect Mark Kirkhart, whose style and modern vision was an inspiration. Mark and I are friends to this day and have built many projects together over the year sharing our love of good design and architecture. Since our early days here is SB, my brother David and I have developed many wonderful friends and business relationships. I like to think, through hard work and dedication to our clients, we’ve had many opportunities to be part of some of the areas best projects.
HAMILTON: Who in the Modern Architecture field are you most inspired by?
I am very impressed with some of the early work of The Morphosis Group. Thom Mayne, one of the companies founders was involved with a “very edgy” project for it’s time in the Las Entradas area sometime back in the ‘80s. And who in the modern world didn’t like Frank Geary’s early work in Santa Monica? Not to mention Bilbao and his other signature projects. I love Tom Kundig’s (Olson-Kundig) work. We recently completed a project with them at the top of Toro Canyon. As for Santa Barbara architects with a flare for the modern – DesignARC, Shubin-Donaldson, Ferguson-Ettinger & Andy Neumann come to mind.
HAMILTON: What do you consider something signature that you bring to the table when involved in these types of projects?
I think there’s a misconception that modern architecture is easy to build. Simple right? Just a bunch of boxes… The reality is quite the contrary. Good modern work takes lots of planning and a good vision towards the finished project from the very early stages. Regardless of style, we’re very proactive in the process and feel the best projects result from a collaborative team effort. I’ve always said the materials used in a project cost the same no matter who builds it, why not work with those who really understand the design and will look for every opportunity to make it better.
HAMILTON: What are your favorite places to eat/play/shop/visit in Santa Barbara and Montecito?
YOUNG: One of my favorite spots to eat is at home. We have a couple acres on a creek with an outdoor dining area under a 200-year-old oak. I always enjoy a meal with friends at Lucky’s in Montecito. Other than for architectural features, I really don’t like to shop, most of my shopping for clothes etc. is online these days. I spend a lot of time with friends and family at the Santa Barbara Yacht Club. My bro Dave and I have been racing boats for 20 + years.
HAMILTON: It’s nice to see you Young brothers continue to reinvest in the community you’ve known as home! We look forward to see what project you will tackle next. Cheers Bob!
One of our favorite architects in the desert is Lance O’Donnell of O2 Architecture who recently designed the Platinum LEED house of his dreams for himself and his family in the Little Tuscany area of Palm Springs, also home to the Kaufman House. Lance’s signature aesthetic combines a keen eye towards contemporary modernism mixed with a passion for sustainability and construction that blends into the natural surroundings to give the essence of a seamless merge between in/outdoors. His home is perfect example of his work that entirely reflects his own architectural firm’s mission utilizing raw materials like concrete, steel, sculpted laminate, wood furnishings and glass to integrate a “green” integrity in a non-pretentious fashion. We spent an afternoon with him recently on a private tour with wine around the property as he revealed the key ingredients in the house of his dreams.
Hamilton: Your house is built on a steep grade yet you’ve managed to create a space that upon initial viewing seems level, how did you accomplish this?
Lance: Everyone else would have just built a pad with a slope up to it and a hill behind it. We treated this in almost terrace fashion so that upon entering the home, you come into one great space that has a lower level and steps up to a higher level. Not only does this create the illusion of volume in the main areas of the home but it also clearly denotes the living room on the bottom from the kitchen/dining area on the top without making them appear to be separate rooms.
Hamilton: Little Tuscany is an area known for its fierce winds. How did you tackle this design to avoid being eternally whiplashed?
Lance: We positioned the home on the property so that it is entirely wind protected through the use of carefully located walls and overhangs. You could literally sit outside and eat dinner on the patio off the dining room on the windiest day of the year and not be affected.
Hamilton: From almost every space in this home, you can see a beautiful view of desert, sky and mountains. In an area already being almost completely dense with homes, how did you accomplish this?
Lance: One of my biggest considerations in this house was how to maximize space so that from every indoor location you would still get the impression that you were outdoors, we spent a great deal of time of positioning of things to get these great views of the Tram, which rises up the mountain at night like a blinking light, as well as views of the Santa Rosa, San Gorgonio and San Jacinto mountains.
Hamilton: I know being outdoors is important to you and your wife Regina who are both avid cyclers and swimmers. How does this house fit into your athletic activities?
Lance: Funny you should say that. We actually have small targets painted on to either side of our lap pool which are “turning” targets for speed laps. Also, we have an outdoor shower off the house on concrete so that whatever activity we are doing outside, we can just quickly arrive sweaty, rinse off, throw our things on the floor and be house-ready!
Hamilton: How’s the climate control in the house as it is so exposed to the elements from most places within?
Lance: Due to carefully placed overhangs and windows with a consideration towards the sun rise and set, we are lucky to not have to turn on the heater in the winter much or the air conditioner in the summer much. In the winter, the sun coming through at key times heats the concrete floor which helps warm the house, and in the summer because of the placement of shade elements, we don’t get the overbearing sun and its worst points of the day.
Hamilton: I know you are a sustainability-minded LEED-certified architect. What measures did you take with the property in reducing the harm to the natural environment while building the house?
Lance: We did not remove anything from the property while building. We had tractors reposition the boulders as they dug them up and ended up just relocating them. In the backyard behind the pool, we have a wildness with paths that we will eventually float a small patio somewhere within but we wanted to keep the sense of natural desert, the creosote, the Palo Verde, the cactus, the stone. We created areas on the roof so that when it rains, water drips down into the mud creating little swales that in turn re-irrigate the soil in various places. My son loves it as he can build forts in the bushes and roam and explore with his friends, the hose and a few army men. We also see animals like raccoons, king snakes, squirrels, and these bizarre little armadillo-like creatures.
Hamilton: Your kitchen is situated in the central point of the property and you can see everything from here. Was that intentional?
Lance: My wife Regina was skeptical, didn’t think I knew what I was doing. But all kidding aside, we can be in the kitchen dining area, have guests in the pool, have kids playing in the living room and nobody ever feels like they are missing out on anything. We enjoy that openness. That’s also why throughout the house you can see raw slab, retaining walls and other exposed elements.
Hamilton: Your master suite as well as your Jack and Jill rooms are also positioned where the outdoors are allowed in. How does it feel waking up surrounded by natural light?
Lance: When we first moved in, the house wasn’t done yet, so we basically lived in the master bedroom and would joke that it was all the house we really needed. We can take a shower in complete privacy yet look out the window panes and see desert and sky. We could watch t.v. and have the sun go up and down. It’s almost like being in a ship sailing amongst the environment, pretty cool.
Hamilton: We like the fact that your Platinum LEED plaque is embedded in the base of your living room fire place.
Lance: Yes, it is a good place to be, a constant reminder of what I am here to do through my work!
