Green Dream Home

With its own wetlands and thermal ground heat, a home being built by a Silicon Valley couple raises the bar for luxury living with an ecological bent.

By Edward Robinson Bloomberg Markets July 2008

Paul Holland, a general partner at Foundation Capital, never imagined he'd put wetlands in his front yard. Nor did his wife, management consultant Linda Yates, ever think she'd live in a home with no paint or carpeting. At a time when fighting climate change has become a cause celebrated among the wealthy, the couple is building what's slated to be the greenest luxury home in the U.S.

The 5,600-square-foot (520-square-meter) house in Northern California will clean and recycle water, generate all of its own electricity and tap heat from the ground instead of burning natural gas for winter warmth. The couple is even removing fences so bobcats and raccoons can roam its 2.7-acre (1.1-hectare) property. "There might be people who think we're a bunch of ecogeeks, but we wanted to build the greenest house possible," says Holland, who coordinates the environmental-technology investing practice at Foundation, a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California.

Not that the duo and their three daughters, ages 6 to 9, will be roughing it. The property in Portola Valley, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) south of San Francisco, is perched on a gently sloping hillside with views of the redwood- forested Santa Cruz Mountains. A chlorine-free swimming pond surrounded by earthen banks sprouting cattails will replace a conventional pool. And the family will be able to entertain 200 party guests in a great room that features movable glass walls. Construction began in May.

Across the U.S., the rich are marrying luxurious living with environmental responsibility. Laura Turner Seydel, the daughter of billionaire Ted Turner, lives with her family in EcoManor, a 6,000-square-foot manse near Atlanta that uses repurposed wheat chaff and hay instead of wood in doors and cabinets. And Frank and Lisa Mauceri, who own punk rock label Smog Veil Records, have mounted two wind turbines on the roof of their mixed-use building in Chicago. The U.S. green home market is projected to jump as high as $19.6 billion in 2010 from $1.8 billion in 2007, according to McGraw-Hill Construction, a research group.

Holland, 47, and Yates, 45, began their four-year odyssey through the budding world of green building design in 2004. They assembled a team of more than two dozen experts including wastewater system engineers, energy specialists and even biologists who studied the property's flora and fauna. "It kind of took over our lives," says Yates, a director of software giant Sybase Inc.

The blueprint calls for wetlands of gravel and grasses to clean water from appliances, sinks, showers and toilets. The recycled H2O will irrigate the property's meadows. Solar panels capable of producing about 20 kilowatts of electricity will power the home and charge up to five electric vehicles. And much of the house will be made of cedar that's been harvested from woodlands certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, a group that shuns timber from loggers who use clear-cutting and other destructive practices.

"I feel like I've earned a four-year degree in green design," says Robert Glazier, the home's architect and a principal at HKS Hill Glazier Studio in Palo Alto, California, which usually designs swank resorts such as the Four Seasons Hualalai in Hawaii.

Some of the home's innovations posed a health hazard. San Mateo County officials balked at approving the wetlands that receive toilet waste until they could determine if it posed a risk to neighbors. The system would be the first of its kind for homes in California. After meeting with the Santa Fe, New Mexico-based firm that designed the system, officials say their concerns were addressed and that the wetlands received final approval.

The property is on course to receive a platinum-level score of 113 points on the LEED for Homes rating system, making it the most environmentally friendly luxury home in the U.S., says Ann Edminster, an architect and co-chair of the LEED Homes Committee. LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a standard administered by the U.S. Green Building Council, a Washington-based trade group.

The couple declined to reveal its building cost in an area where homes typically sell for $5 million-$8 million. Yates says the house will cost only 2-5 percent more than a conventional custom home, thanks to savings reaped by not installing air conditioning, heating ducts and other traditional fixtures. "Just putting solar on your roof is admirable," says Yates. "But the bigger picture is that there's an opportunity to do so much more. And if you can afford it, then why not?"

Edward Robinson is a senior writer at Bloomberg News in San Francisco. edrobinson@bloomberg.net

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