Wolf Architects designed this LEED-Silver private residence on a very small off-street urban site to maximize the owners' sense of living in a wooded garden setting within the city. The height of the house minimizes its footprint, while its irregular massing breaks up its volume and emphasizes private decks, views and openness to breezes. Siding milled from reclaimed lumber clads the exterior; cobalt blue tiles wrap several planters and the ground-level entry, introducing plantings close to the house on two floors.
A vertical "green wall" at the entrance combines with green roofs at two different levels to emphasize the garden theme and sustainability, along with a lush landscape design that offers sitting areas, a water course, and a meditation hut. Outdoor decks at each story of the house place the occupants "in the trees". The permeable driveway reduces run-off; underground storage recharger chambers retain that run-off on site.
At the highest roof, photo-voltaic panels capture the sun's energy. Below grade, a ground-source (geothermal) system provides pre-heating and -cooling.
Inside, birch bark wraps a column in the vestibule to introduce the emphasis on nature into the house, and sliding screens on the main level continue that theme with cut-out leaf shapes derived from leaves of nearby trees. Heart pine floors throughout come from reclaimed lumber. The kitchen counter tops and the fireplace wall are Vermont marble.
Wolf Architects: architect
Conservation Services Group: LEED consultant
Roome and Guarracino, LLC: structural engineer
Allied Consulting Engineering Services: MEP engineer
Julie Moir Messervy Design Studio: landscape architect
Hamwey Engineering Inc.: civil engineer
WS+D: interior design
GF Rhode Construction: general contractor
Robert Hans, Inc.: landscape contractor
Apex Greenroofs: greenroof subcontractor
Amrster Reclaimed Lumber Co.: reclaimed lumber/millwork
Solar Design Associates, LLC: photovoltaic contractor