Rick Rosen and Barbara Gordon have their Certificate of Occupancy from the Town of Wilton and are now living at 13 Kendrick Hill Road.

Bernhard and Joan Bluemich have purchased a lot at 20 Kendrick Hill Road with plans to build their home into the hillside. They describe their home as a cross between a Zen temple and an Adirondack Lodge.

Amy Foster and Charles Kirsty are near completion of their home at 19 Kendrick Hill Road and are putting the finishing touches on the exterior.

We have 14 lots remaining and welcome your inquiries. Louden Ridge is a community of like minded people who share a common concern for the environment and a desire for a healthy life style.

But behind the walls of the classically featured display home in the new Loudon Ridge development, you’ll find loads of recycled newspaper for insulation.

In the basement is a state-of-the-art, energy-efficient furnace.

And in the kitchen – complete with a hickory hardware floor – is a futuristic control panel that, with a fingertip touch, can open all the windows in the house, adjust the lighting and, simultaneously, turn on the 400-CD changer.

“Green” homes, according to Frank Laskey of Capital Construction, can essentially be anything people want them to be – and still be environmentally friendly.

This means that having an environmental conscience won’t result in a niche of consumers having to sacrifice style, design and aesthetic taste when building the abode of their dreams, Laskey said.

Laskey said he helps residents build homes that are healthy for the natural land surrounding the residence and for the residents themselves.

“If products are good for the environment,” he said, “they must be good for the people.”

One of the main objectives Laskey has when approaching a new project is to make the interior of the home feel like the exterior in terms of fostering an architecturally appealing look.

“Part of the design of being green is making the outside seem as if it’s on the inside, by using materials from the outside,” Laskey explained.

As he walked into the environmentally compatible, earth-toned-colored demo house, Laskey pointed out that the front door, its frame and the surrounding paneling are made of wood that doesn’t possess the toxic glue chemical, formaldehyde.

Further helping the transition from front yard to over the threshold is the use of silverish-gray stone, said Laskey.

Though it’s difficult to tell from looking at the surface – some of which are maroon, dark green, or a swirl of beige and brown – Laskey said the home’s wall insulation is made from old newspapers.

In the future, he said, the insulation could even include the beans used for tofu and soy burgers.

“We haven’t used soybeans yet,” he said, “but we use recycled newspaper – it stops the air flow.”

Does the added effort to be “green” pay off? Well, Laskey estimates the monthly utility bill to be only about $120 per month for the entire 3,600-square-foot home.

And even with all of the energy-saving gadgets and gizmos, the idea that style and luxury can’t mix with a “green” theme goes out the window when you gaze at the 110-inch movie screen in the basement’s home entertainment center, with brown leather lounge chairs and blinds that automatically close to keep out excess sunlight.

The house that Laskey had showcased, situated on a 5-acre parcel, has access to a private wooded area of 30 to 35 acres, which residents of the soon-to-be-built Louden Ridge Green housing development will be able to use for horseback riding, biking or simply walking.

According to Ryan Moore, a public relations representative at the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, builders like Laskey receive $3,500 for constructing “green” model homes that are open for 60 days.

And homeowners can save 30 percent or so, on their energy bills compared to conventionally built homes.

Since the start of New York State Energy Star, a federal government-administered energy-saving program that approves and certifies “green” houses, there have been 4,392 environmentally friendly homes built across the state, said Moore.

“Each New York Energy Star-labeled home must pass a stringent evaluation, including a computer-based energy analysis, inspections and certification testing,” said Gaye Dougherty, public relations official for Energy Star.

Having met Energy Star “green” and American Lung Association “clean house” standards, Laskey is still waiting to receive fire and safety certificates from the town of Wilton before moving ahead with his plan to turn the whole development green – even in the middle of winter.

Publisher: The Post-Star
Date: Monday, November, 15, 2004
Writer: Jarrett Warshaw
Title of Article: Green House Home can be energy-saving and stylish

Frank Laskey, president of Capital Construction in Ballston Spa, is currently building a subdivision of energy-efficient and environmentally friendly homes in Wilton. Through his years in the construction industry, he has come to understand the elements that make a home “green”.

The process begins with the land. Rather than building as many homes as possible on a piece of property, Laskey leaves a good portion of the land untouched.

“We think that you can maximize your profit by developing in a responsible fashion and by respecting site topography and ecosystems and setting aside a portion of that land to remain forever wild,” Laskey said.

In the subdivision Laskey currently is building, there are 35 acres of open space, including hiking trails, which forms a corridor to the Saratoga County Forest and Wilton Wildlife Preserve.

Green Building requires a holistic approach, said Michael Phinney, a principal at Phinney Design Group in Saratoga Springs and the architect for Laskey’s homes.

Phinney said that to make a successful green building, all the parties involved must be educated about the process from the beginning so that they all have a common goal in mind.

Phinney has special certification as a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design professional for his work with green buildings, including the state Department of Environmental Conservation building in Albany.

As an architect, Phinney is responsible for keeping in mind the big picture. He must balance the environmental aspects of the project with aesthetics, scale, and relationship to the site. Phinney wants the green aspects of the homes he designs to be a “hidden surprise” rather than driving the look of the building. He likes people to see beautiful homes and be able to tell them, “By the way, they have all these great environmental features.”

Deciding where to place the house on the land is important.

Phinney looks at natural features, such as mature trees and rock formations that would be difficult to replace. Once the architect and builder select the site, they have to consider the direction to orient the home. That involves figuring out how to bring as much natural light as possible into the house.

Ideally, the length of the house should be located on an east-west axis, with most of the windows on the south side of the house, Laskey said. In the winter, the house soaks up the sun, but in the summer, deep overhangs on the house protect it from the heat.

Another consideration is the building materials. In the Showcase of Homes house that Laskey recently built, the only wood on the outside of the house is on the entrance canopy and rafters, and that wood came from around Lake George and Glens Falls to minimize trucking distance and gasoline consumption. The majority of building materials are recycled or composite materials. The Showcase of Homes, a benefit project of the Saratoga Builders Association Inc., this fall displayed newly built and decorated homes by eight different builders.

“Where we do use natural materials as opposed to recycled or composite, we use materials that come from managed or sustainable forests where they grow more wood than they harvest, so we will not deplete that natural resource,” Laskey said.

Other materials, such as 40-year architectural shingles, copper and aluminum cladding are durable, long-lasting, and low-maintenance, Laskey said.

Durability is an important factor in green building, said Margo Thompson, a research associate with National Association of Home Builders Research Center.

She said that’s because quality materials require less maintenance and make buildings last longer, so fewer resources are used up.

Materials are “healthy,” too. That means that they are low in, or free of, volatile organic compounds, such as the formaldehyde found in pressed board, that emit toxic substances into the air. Laskey’s latest house will be certified as a “Healthy Home” by the American Lung Association.

Green buildings are super-insulated to control moisture levels and reduce energy consumption and have boilers that sense outdoor temperatures and fire only as much as necessary.

Laskey’s latest home is a “smart home” in which lighting, heating and other systems “speak” to each other. Marc Liedig, president of Ambience Systems in Clifton Park, the company that designed and installed the systems, said there is, for example, a “goodbye button” on a keypad near the front door.

When the homeowner hits the button twice, the system knows that the house will be unoccupied and automatically shuts off lights and entertainment systems and turns down the heat. The system also incorporates motorized windows.

In addition to the showcase home he recently built, Laskey has plans for more homes in the same development and plans to build more homes on other properties.

Publisher: Business Review
Original Date: November 5-11, 2004
Writer: Joanne McFadden
Original Title of Article: Capital Construction Goes For “Green” in New Home Subdivision

My interest in building green was a conscious decision that evolved over time. It was an effort to minimize callbacks and create satisfied customers. Green building practices are in some ways just good common sense. Farmers were green builders. They thought about land use issues and how to best site the house to take advantage of the sun in the winter yet still shield it from sun in the summer. They thought about durability and how to conserve energy.

My goal in building green is both practical and philosophical. I want to minimize our footprint on the land both locally and globally and in doing so offer the potential homebuyer an alternative. I hope to create a market niche where there is currently little or no competition.

This journey began in 2003, as luck would have it, when an RPI professor approached me about building a “green home.” His wife had sensitivities to many chemicals and he had a personal concern about the impact of building with conventional materials, not just for his family but the environment as well.

My new client knew more about building green than I did. The path from inception to completion was a learning process that ultimately led me to my focus today. This focus is on what I call environmentally responsible residential construction. The result is the creation of a house that is the first of 22 to be built at our Louden Ridge site in Wilton, NY.

I believe that in the future building codes will mandate much of what we at Capital Construction are doing now. People will become more aware and the market will continually demand higher standards for their homes. Remember, today’s building codes are the minimum standard by which we build, not the pinnacle.

One of the biggest challenges green builders face is educating consumers. People often asked: “What makes a house green?” I used to respond by talking about sustainability or the need to recycle and reuse and the resulting benefits to the homeowner as well as the planet. Within 20 seconds or less I was losing my audience. I might as well been answering the question, “What is calculus?”

However, when I talk about how we build and the materials we use and why they make for durable, long-lasting, low-maintenance, energy efficient, healthy homes I gain and retain their interest. When I tell people that our 3,600 square foot Saratoga Showcase of Homes show house will cost only between $1,400 and $1,600 a year to heat, cool, power and light, they listen.

Functionality. A square house is more economical to heat because of the ratio of floor area to exterior surface area. A house without intersecting rooflines (i.e., no dormers) drains water from the roof most effectively. A house without skylights holds heat better. Water saving shower heads are environmentally responsible. Composite building materials made from recycled products are sound and cost effective alternatives.

But functionality is not enough. These homes must be attractive if we are to reach a broad cross section of the market. They need to have curb appeal. We need to balance practical issues with aesthetics. People like roofs with dormers not only because they break up an otherwise flat roof plane; they also bring in more light to the rooms. Bump-outs and jogs in the floor plan create private places for the homeowner to get away to and they give the exterior elevation more eye appeal.

Standing seam metal roofs may use more energy and water during the manufacturing process but they will not need to be replaced for hundreds of years and will result in fewer trips to the landfill when more conventional roofing materials are used. Showers that are big enough to double as a car wash may be extravagant but, let’s admit it, they sure do look like fun.

Over-sized showers, standing seam copper roofs and commercial kitchen appliances are perceived as value in the marketplace. Value the first time around and value upon resale. Realtors tell me that most buyers know within the first ten minutes whether or not they will buy a house, but it takes far more than ten minutes to speak to the value in building green.

While I believe it is our professional duty to encourage homeowners to think about sustainable building practices we must do so without being too dogmatic or rigid. There are many shades of green and the market will tell us just how green they want their houses to be.

The built environment is every bit as important as the natural environment. If we combine good architecture with the most sound building practices, environmental responsibility will naturally flow.

Publisher: Capital Region Building
Original Date: Nov./Dec. 2004
Writer: Franklin Laskey
Title of Article: Form function and aesthetics essential when building green