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Buckeye Home featured
by AIA Austin Tour
The AIA Austin Homes Tour is known nationally for
showcasing a wide variety of designs and for encouraging quality design for everyone. This year one of the 12 featured homes was Buckeye Trail. Each year green building and environmentally conscious designs expand from unique design features to expected components of a home’s design. Buckeye is an excellent example of the collaborative efforts of a general contractor and an architect to reclaim and restore through adaptive reuse an old dilapidated structure and bring it new life. This project is the epitome of a "green" sustainable project. Some of its noteworthy features include:
“The fact that this project was an extensive restoration, and
not a new construction, was to some extent limiting.” Says Mark
Canada, the architect of the project. “But… had we demolished
and started anew the building footprint and impervious coverage would
have perhaps been even more limiting.”
The AIA Austin Homes Tour is known nationally for
showcasing a wide variety of designs and for encouraging quality design for everyone. This year one of the 12 featured homes was Buckeye Trail. Each year green building and environmentally conscious designs expand from unique design features to expected components of a home’s design. Buckeye is an excellent example of the collaborative efforts of a general contractor and an architect to reclaim and restore through adaptive reuse an old dilapidated structure and bring it new life. This project is the epitome of a "green" sustainable project. Some of its noteworthy features include:
- Water harvesting; capturing spring water, roof drainage and HVAC condensate to create a grotto and koi pond with its collection,
- Fine Arts and Crafts detailing, trim work and tile work,
- Exhibiting a variety of different outdoor living areas including verandahs, loggia, patios and deck from which to enjoy the views of the ridges and valleys of Westlake Hills
Although anticipated by the architect; converting a dilapidated duplex into a contemporary 5,000 square foot custom residence with all existing luxury conveniences, and capturing the dramatic views to the west without compromising energy efficiency; still was challenging nonetheless.
Buckeye: Certified Wildlife Habitat
The National Wildlife Federation, NWF, has accepted the
Buckeye Trail property as a "Certified
Wildlife Habitat."
About the Buckeye Project:
"The grotto is reminiscent of Fay
Jones' —a Frank Lloyd Wright student and protégé,
he helped pioneer 'Prairie Style' of architecture— water feature
at the Alexander
House. I actually like this better. It flows under the house while
being visible from inside the house. Fay Jones' grotto ran through
part of his house, which caused moisture problems. The house's woodwork
has a level of craftsmanship and detail you don't see in other Austin
high-end homes. I've worked on homes that did not come out this nice
that were priced much higher. I would market this house for over 3
million dollars."
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