Third time's a charm for the Trillium team at the 2015 CTGBC Awards

Elizabeth DiSalvo accepting the 2015 CTGBC Green Building Residential award of honor for the Taft School Residence, with Judy Swann~CTGBC, Pat McDonnell~CTGBC, Chris Trolle~BPC Builders.

Elizabeth DiSalvo accepting the 2015 CTGBC Green Building Residential award of honor for the Taft School Residence, with Judy Swann~CTGBC, Pat McDonnell~CTGBC, Chris Trolle~BPC Builders.

Chris and Elizabeth discuss their award winning Taft project

Chris and Elizabeth discuss their award winning Taft project

2015 CTGBC Residential Award of Honor – CT Green Building Council

2015 1st place Housing Innovation Award (Top National Award for Best House in USA!)- U.S. Department of Energy

2014 Net Zero Award, 3rd Place - CT Zero Energy Challenge

The Taft School Faculty House, designed by Trillium Architects and built by BPC builders, won the 2015 CTGBC Residential Award of Honor.  The house was commissioned by the Taft School (a private secondary boarding school in Litchfield County) to serve as an example to the public and a learning tool for their students.

To that end the house achieved the following certifications:

·        Passive House

·        LEED Platinum

·        Net Zero

·        Living Building Challenge (3 Petals)

This is the 3rd CTGBC Residential Award that the team at Trillium has won.  They won the CTGBC Residential Award of Merit in both 2012 and 2013.   

New house on the water in Stamford

We have been working on two houses on the water in Stamford over the past year. One is a new 5,000 sf home. The other is an addition and renovation to an existing home. They are both in Dolphin Cove. A lovely residential enclave. These are some photos of the new house under construction. What amazing views!  

We love this house because of the room proportions- simple rectangles with tall ceilings, not too large and not too small. We also love that it will be a light filled white washed interior. It is great to have a client with sophisticated and simple taste! 

You can also see the radiant floor has been installed to go under the wide board wood floor to come.  The house will be an indoor-outdoor, comfortable, airy and energy efficient refuge.

You can also see the radiant floor has been installed to go under the wide board wood floor to come.  The house will be an indoor-outdoor, comfortable, airy and energy efficient refuge.

A phoenix rises from the ashes in Wilton

This is a new 2 story house we are working on in Wilton.  The original house burned down in a house fire 2 years ago.

Interesting facts:  When your house burns in a fire, insurance pays to replace the house and to bring anything that was not to code - up to code.  It involves a ton of paper work and a lot of time. This is the second family we have helped rebuild after a house fire.  And, while it is exciting to get a new house, I don’t think either family would wish the process or the loss on anyone else.  After a lot of healing time and a ton of hassle, we are very happy that this family is finally underway with their construction.

A New Canaan retrofit is underway!

The New Canaan House is closed in, sealed up, and passed its rough in inspection.  Now it is ready for insulation.  This house is a bit different than the usual ‘spray foamed’ energy efficient house in that it is wrapped entirely with rigid foam boards in one form or another and then the wall cavities will be filled with dense pack cellulose. 

On the roof we have 4” thick sips panels that use polyisosanurate insulation board adhered to OSB boards. On the walls we are using Zip R sheathing which is basically the same thing but with only 1 3/8” of polyiso insulation board.  We area also strapping the existing 2x4 walls to make them the same width as the new 2x6 walls to optimize dense packed cellulose R values.

The bottom line: Our total R value for the roof is about R50 and for the walls R26.

The crawl space will be foam insulation boards as well and we will achieve an R 30 there.

Plus all of the walls will be very well air sealed.

Pretty good for a retrofit!

Cool new modern home under construction in Ridgefield

In this Ridgefield house, there were two things worth keeping from the existing ranch house that sat on the site: the foundation, which was in good shape, and the incredible views looking towards the sunset (see first photo).

So we are building a new house using the original foundation (shown at lower right in the second photo), and with a wall of glass looking over that view. The homeowners are an artist and a doctor, who want to be able to welcome their grown children home for visits. At the same time, they wanted the main floor of the home to be comfortable for two, so extra space for visiting family was incorporated in the walk-out basement - again, with every room oriented towards that wonderful view.

In the photo below, you can see the centerpiece of the main floor, the open living and dining room area with its lofty 13 foot ceilings. Temporary bracing obstructs the view right now, but when the house is complete, visitors will be able to see clear through the front entry – shown where the ramp is in the photo – all the way through to the glass wall on the west. Also visible below is the massing of the house: created of discrete volumes, each with the same pitch of roof, the shape of the house was designed to maximize the original foundation without appearing over-scaled or bulky.

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At this stage, you can see the green Zip-R sheathing, which in the last photo is shown with blue taping at the seams to keep the structure as airtight and energy-efficient as possible. We’ve specified additional insulating materials for a snug envelope – yet to be installed. Also visible in the last photo is the LVL beam at middle right – this will be wrapped in cedar and will support a welcoming pergola at the entrance. As construction continues, the extensive glazing and clean, simple detailing of the house will help this house take its modern shape – check back here for more updates. Meanwhile, you can see more construction progress photos of this project in our In Progress section .

Paying it Forward

Nepal Earthquake ~ before and after ~ Durbar square

Nepal Earthquake ~ before and after ~ Durbar square

Last weekend there was a devastating earthquake in Nepal.  One of our former clients was there working with Save the Children.  He was, thankfully, unharmed.  A few days later, on NPR, we heard the tearful account of his experience giving aid and we were moved to make a donation to Save the Children in the amount of the retainer he and his wife paid to us to renovate their small family home.

This, to me, seemed like a perfect circle.  So much of the devastation that happened in Nepal was about buildings.  As someone once said ‘earthquakes don’t kill people, buildings kill people.’  The poorest countries in the world are usually the ones most injured by natural disasters. This is not because they don’t know any better, but because they do not have the finances in place to maintain standards and regulations that will keep their people safe.

In America we often hear a lot of complaining about taxes and regulations.  Sometimes people ask me if I am fed up with the regulations in my industry.  To them I always say ‘No! I thank God every day for the regulations in my industry’.   Building Codes, Zoning, Fire, Health and Water Safety and Conservation are all regulations that I am happy to bend to.  Sometimes they don’t let me design exactly what I want but when I think about the alternatives, I do not mind.  Regulations let me sleep at night. I know that a building my firm designs will not fall and kill someone, I know we won’t contaminate a stream or trap someone in a fire.

Having spent a fair amount of time in third world countries, I realize how safe and relatively carefree we are in America.  The same sized earthquake that hit Nepal, when it occurs in America will only do a fraction of the harm.  We are happy to have the donations we give now go to helping survivors in any way possible, but wouldn’t it be better if this tragedy never reached this scale in the first place? Ongoing donations can be given through the below websites and will eventually help Nepal rebuild, hopefully stronger than ever.

http://www.savethechildren.org/

http://www.globalgiving.org/nepal-earthquake/

The signs of spring...

The robins are pecking at the ground, the crocus are popping up from the ground – and the backhoes are taking bites out of the ground. At Trillium Architects, that’s how we know spring is finally here.

After an interminable winter, during which our clients patiently (…or impatiently) waited for the ground to thaw, construction can at last begin. Several new projects have been biding their time until the ground is no longer too hard to dig, or too cold for concrete to cure.  Among the projects starting construction are two houses right across the street from one another on the Long Island Sound waterfront community in Stamford, CT, called Dolphin Cove. The first project, is an addition to an existing house. When the project is complete, the homeowners will not only have modernized their home – improving the flow and filling it with natural light , they will have almost double the space from which to enjoy water views and access to their  lovely patio.  Their neighbors across the street are building a new Trillium-designed house from the ground up. It will be a designer’s dream, with an open airy Scandinavian style interior, big kitchen and living space in white wood tones, and a more traditional shingle style exterior.

Construction is also getting underway on Phase 2 of another interesting Trillium project in New Canaan, CT. This house, a two-part addition to an existing main house plus cottage, has a program that speaks to several trends we’re seeing in the way that modern families live. As more and more people aspire to aging in place, this client – a mother and her grown daughter – sought ways to make their spaces function into the future, planning a ramp and chairlift against future mobility issues. Work-at-home spaces have been incorporated for both clients, flooded with natural light. And most importantly, the project involved making connections: two new additions that connect the mother’s main house to the daughter’s cottage, enabling both generations to have their own separate spaces while enhancing their connection to one another.

Check back and learn more about our progress on these Trillium homes - now that the long winter’s wait is over.

Kirsten ~

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