Faster, Cheaper, Greener
Project: Environmental-chic: hip inside, period outside
Client: The Barth Family
The Story of the Barth House . . .
The Barths from Los Angeles wanted their chic and hip sensibility to be reflected in their new home. The family lived in California while buying their Alameda home that we remodeled. Lee Barth, high tech businessman, seemed like a client from the future. When he came for a tour, Lee rode a tiny electric scooter that he carried in a piece of luggage on the plane, and then shopped for house parts wtih a Zipcar unlocked by a barcode on its windshield. He found deals on materials via our cell phones many times per day.
Cooperation made it possible to completely remodel the Barth House with a major two-story period-correct addition in only three months, including a rain water harvesting system so original the City of Portland did not know at first how to permit it. The Barth's furnace can be programmed by iPhone from anywhere and despite its almost 90 years, the house now boasts an ultra-tight energy envelope. From spot lit whimsical art, plastic chairs, waterfall countertops, a Zuma tub with colored lights and jets: the old house feels futuristic.
Lee, a computer whiz, flew from L.A. to attend seminars with John on green building and evolved an online notebook with hundreds of pages of information on new styles for kitchens and baths and environmental building methods. The fun of planning and developing the unique house led to hundreds of excited phone calls and several meetings of synergistic creativity. Together we were able to build faster, cheaper, greener, and precisely customized for the Barth Family.