Built Green™ Expo, Conference & Tour

The Built Green Tour will be on Saturday, June 14, 2008 and the Tour sites will be open from 10am to 4pm. 

Please respect the privacy of the Home & Business owners.  Tour sites are only open from 10am to 4pm Saturday, June 14, 2008.

This Mediterranean style house was designed and built by Russ Banko, Banko Design & Construction, with a real Santa Barbara feel. The homeowners decided on the main concept for the house, and let the terrain dictate the details.

One of the creative ways the terrain was incorporated into the project was to use rocks from the site as a retaining wall. The builder hit a major rock layer and it was used as the retaining wall. As a result they eliminated the need to buy any retaining wall material or move dirt in or out of the site, a savings on material costs and transportation.

The homeowners wanted a home that was green, healthy and comfortable.  They also did not want on spend a lot more on a “green home”. Most of the green features had immediate or short term pay backs or off sets, while others were simply a matter of choice due to the two young children in the home. One of these choices was to use wool carpet in the living room and bedrooms. It cost more than regular carpet but it has no VOC. There were no measurable pay backs for the extra money it cost, except for the health and well being of the children.

This project is an excellent example of how to turn a 1960’s tract home into a showcase for green building.  A primary design goal was to create shared intergenerational living spaces to provide support and companionship while also creating separate living spaces for privacy. This goal was met by adding only 260 square feet to the existing home creating separate quarters that include a grand room, master bedroom, and office.   Another design goal was to bring in more natural light and create a feeling of spaciousness.   To accomplish this, the remodel opened up the existing narrow entry, original master bedroom, and dining room to each other, creating a grand room with a cathedral ceiling, adding numerous operable skylights and a triple-paned window with internal shades. 

The motivated owners worked together with the project architect and general contractor to develop a list of green building goals to guide the overall design and selection of materials.  These goals included: improve the overall energy efficiency; maximize insulation use to reduce heat gain & loss; increase use of natural light to reduce electrical needs; produce the home’s energy needs using solar energy; improve the home’s indoor air quality; use only sustainably harvested lumber; reuse as many materials as possible; utilize salvage and/or local materials; and, generate less than 2% waste.  As a result of the extensive “greenness” of this home, it will be featured on The Planet Earth Channel’s “Greenovate” television show in Summer 2008.

* This site is only accessable by walking.  All visitors must park in designated areas and walk 0.5 miles down than back up a steep drive.  No cars allowed on drive.

“Green from the Ground Up” is an eco-home in the foothills of Santa Barbara. Campanelli Construction called on over 30 yrs experience to build an all green home with sustainable approaches to the use of energy, natural resources, materials, and water, that would compliment its’ natural setting. The result, an inviting, and healthy green custom home with low maintenance, and costs, that’s easy to live in.

The project received a 3 star rating with 415 points in the Built Green Santa Barbara program. Title 24-Energy code was exceeded by 76.1%. Both accomplished by green features covering: careful site planning, material selections, innovative building systems, energy and water conservation, floor-plan orientation for natural day-lighting & ventilation, insulation, light fixtures, heating, air quality and comfort. Specific systems are: rainwater harvesting, solar electric & hot water, on-demand water heating, 95% efficient furnace, low-e windows, SIPs engineered insulated panels in place of wood stud framing, no VOC finishes, bamboo flooring, Aquel water bar/RO system, ceiling fans, Certainteed fire rated siding, blue-wood and drought-tolerant native landscaping.

Attention to detail & quality craftsmanship at every step created this California craftsman styled home. Campanelli Construction has received multiple “Green Builder of the Year” awards and the California Energy Commissions “Flex Your Power” award from Governor Schwarzenegger for innovation and education in green building. The “Green from the Ground Up” development reflects the building teams’ cumulative experience and artistic talent applied to create a wonderful healthy place to call home.

* View the "Green From the Ground Up" Time Lapse Documentary Film, Santa Barbara City College, Friday, June 13, 2008 from 11am to 12pm

When asked to add a master suite to this existing home the original idea from the homeowner was to extend the house into the back yard. The homeowner brought out some sketches done by a previous professional extending the house into the yard and creating a connecting hallway. Both owner and contractor “walked” the new space and found it was very close to the existing garage thereby cutting the yard and minimizing the open space. It felt wrong. Yet was there another way?

Looking at the original structure from the outside and the large roof peaks the contractor asked to explore the attic space.  Once in the attic a large space was discovered with about 12 feet plus to the ridge, but very narrow with the existing roof pitch.

The challenge was to maximize the existing space and not add to the footprint of the house. The contractor/designer then started a dialog with the City Building Department and asked about minimum height requirements for a bedroom, the minimum square footage for a bedroom and suddenly it all seemed to pull together. The transformation of a 2 bedroom one bath home, into a 5 bedroom 3 bath home without using any square footage of the existing yard began.

The finished project brought excitement, change and bedrooms with unheard of design, specially suited for children whose imaginations need to be constantly challenged. The use of space is unique and optimized the living area for the owners.

The owners originally intended to renovate the existing 1960’s era home on this property.  Unfortunately, every builder they interviewed told them to tear it down.  While exploring their options, they came upon the “Sunset Breezehouse” – a modular, prefabricated design by Michelle Kaufmann Designs.  They visited a prototype unit and it was love at first site.

The Breezehouse is centered around a site-built glass-enclosed breezeway – the BreezeSpace – which “lets the green in” to the main living and dining areas, blurring the boundary between interior and exterior spaces.  Decks at the front and rear of the home further integrate nature and living.  Naturalistic landscaping, by Grace Design Associates, incorporates local and site-found materials to seamlessly blend the home to the land and the larger setting.

The Santa Barbara Breezehouse is unique in its construction.  The units flanking the BreezeSpace were built at a factory in Tacoma, Washington – including the framing, insulation, electrical, flooring, tiles, walls and plumbing components – then transported to Santa Barbara on flatbed trucks and craned into place on the foundation.  This process reduced the amount of on-site waste generated and the total construction time for the project.  Site work was done by local green builders Allen Associates. 

Both Energy Star program standards for energy efficient homes and the performance standards of the American Lung Association’s Healthy House program are met in this project.

The original home was deconstructed, diverting as many materials as possible from the landfill through salvage, donation to Habitat for Humanity, and recycling.  Prior to the demolition, the owners offered their home as a canvas for a group of “urban artists”.

Contractor/Builder
Channel Coast Corporation

Architect/Designer
Stuart Sawasaki, Heritage Architecture & Planning

Address
123 East Canon Perdido, Santa Barbara

Project Square Footage
1,025 sf
10,000 sf site

The Project combined the reconstruction of two original presidio adobe structures and limited new construction to enhance site facilities including a new stairway and ADA compliant access ramp.  The adobe rooms that comprise the new Visitor’s Center were originally completed circa 1788 under the direction of Comandante Felipe de Goicoechea.

The walls utilized local sandstone footings and hand-formed sun-dried adobe blocks made on site by Channel Coast Corporation and volunteers to the Santa Barbara Trust for Historical Preservation. The soil for the adobe blocks and the mud plaster was obtained from on-site archaeological excavations. The roof framing consists of hand-adzed yellow pine beams and pole rafters.  Roof sheathing consists of sections of giant cane harvested locally from Arroyo Burro Creek. The roof is capped with hand-formed low-fired earthenware tiles identical in size and shape to the original.