Proud to say Robert Zachry was architect on the 2016 Parade of Homes residence that took the Grand Hacienda Award
Robert, my husband, worked closely throughout the whole process, beyond design and engineering, with builders Scott and Maika Wong of Solterra. The home won two other awards one for Best Design, making us proud again. The home, on Aspen View in the Monte Sereno area of Santa Fe was on a six day tour in August, hosted by the owners. A very gracious thing to do, as between two and three thousand people walk through, asking a few standard questions, a few thousand times. At the end of six days you find yourself saying things like, “Yes, that is a floor.”
The home is sited to capture panoramic views. There were initial steep site issues to overcome, as well as subdivision covenants to adhere to. Glass and steel answer the first. Color palette speaks to the second. This is something that I work on a lot.
About the glass and steel, Zachry said, “We wanted a slim way of supporting that part of the house because the mountain views are so spectacular, so we used wide flange columns (aka W beams similar to the old I beams) that are load-bearing and exposed on the interior. Then there is solid insulation between that and a C-shaped steel channel so it appears as one solid beam. You don’t see the column sandwich because the window flange covers the joint where the insulation is. It’s a lot like the bark on a tree. The trunk supports everything, and the bark is the trim.”
The original design called for overhangs on the glass and steel cubes, but anything approaching a cantilever is discouraged in the covenants, enforcing that they really want traditional Southwest adobe looking architecture. “You can’t cantilever more than a half an adobe brick, right?” said the architect.
The main corridor runs north-south capturing the views of the Sangre de Cristos all along the glass walls to the east, as well as the sweeping badland’s red and ochre cliffs and gullies to the north.
“We wanted to make sure that as you get up in the morning and go to the kitchen to make coffee, and on to the living room to enjoy it, and then into the adjoining office, you are slammed with that view in every one of those experiences.”
And the kitchen you work in is something else. Simple as it looks, it did also win Best Kitchen at the awards banquet. Clean and uncluttered to the world and serving side, it also has a back kitchen where all the counter top appliances live, and do not have to be put away when company comes. Convenient and beautiful, and a top level early request of the homeowner who uses the kitchen the most.
I’ll be going into fantastical futuristic food preparation features in a forthcoming post. Stay tuned.