Thoughts on 2007 Austin Cool House Tour
Monday, June 25th, 2007 at 12:50 am 
By adminI visited most of the homes on the Cool Homes Tour today, and I felt it was worthwhile. I think past Cool House tours have featured more architecturally interesting homes, but this year’s homes probably had more green features than ever. This is probably due to ‘green homes’ becoming far more mainstream (especially in Austin) than in years past. I do think that the landscaping of each home this year was well done across the board (where complete).
My favorite Green House:
Probably a toss-up between House #3 (Hyde Park ‘This Old House’ remodel & addition) and House #7 (Najvar & Chappell Residence). They were both excellent examples using green building features & materials to augment the design of the home.
The ‘This Old House’ remodel demonstrated how to mix modern materials/design elements with traditional architecture.
I loved the high windows in the upstairs with recessed lighting. That is a great touch that really brightens up the interior of the house. The Ice Stone Countertops in the kitchen and upstairs bath were an excellent choice (and seemed popular with tour-goers), although I preferred the simple honed limestone in the downstairs bath.
With Solar Panels, rainwater collection, recycled & sustainable materials, efficient HVAC, etc. this home was impressively green (5-star rated). Builder Bill Moore took great care to preserve as much of the existing home as possible, while still building a clean, healthy, new home.
House #7 (Najvar & Chappell Residence) was at the end of a private alley and had an amazing view to the southwest. The mainfloor living area and covered porch were perfectly oriented to the views and the prevailing winds. With multiple windows on every wall the home was filled with daylight - even in the shower - and still remained very private inside. The clean built-in bookshelves/cabinets and ‘trimless’ finish out completed the clean and modern design.
Other cool features of note:
House #4 (The Elton Project, Barley & Pfeiffer Architects) had quite a variety in light fixtures. Standing in the Kitchen I could see incandescent, halogen, xenon, compact flourescent, and LED fixtures. I think this was partially for the tour, however the builder - Risinger Homes was very knowledgeable about each of the fixtures, and explained the costs and benefits of each. I was impressed most by the LED fixtures, as they performed as well or better than common incandescant cans lights. Of course, they cost $120 each! Check out guidebook sponsor Lighting Science for details.
House #5 (Smith & Esparza Residence, Northfield Design Associates) looked great from the street. The copper siding was an excellent touch, as was the simple but beautiful landscaping.
My observations on the tour itself:
- The homes seemed more crowded than before, which may have been due to there only being 8 homes (past tours have had 9 or 10 if memory serves).
- It’s unfortunate that a ‘green homes’ tour requires thousands of cars to drive all over town, but I don’t know of any other way to provide first hand exposure to these homes. Hopefully the carbon cost of the transportation is exceeded by the carbon savings of the green homes built & improved as a result of the tour.
- To avoid the crowd - don’t follow the order of the guidebook.
- Homes with contractors/architects positioned outside seemed to have less traffic jams inside.
What did you think? Leave comments on your favorite homes and features.
