Homes: Going green

Thirty years ago, as an engineering student, Bob Plachta discovered "green" architecture. Over the years, he kept up on the advances in energy-efficiency and sustainability. He read about passive solar gain, about straw-bale construction, about indoor air quality, about photovoltaics.

Plachta has a cousin who built a home out of old tires and he said he would have been happy to do the same. The house he just finished — an attractive residence on Salt Lake's Mill Creek — is nontoxic and friendly to the environment. But he could have built an even more sustainable home if he'd started from scratch, he said.

Plachta and his wife, Nancy Carlson-Gotts, chose instead to remodel. Remodeling is also a way to honor the environment. "Not tearing the house down," said Plachta. "Not dumping it in the landfill."

Robert Young, an architect who teaches at the University of Utah Graduate School of Architecture, has also just finished remodeling. He and his wife, Deborah, restored a house in the Avenues in Salt Lake City that was built in 1904.

Both homes are "green," even though they aren't new. "Green design is a philosophy, an approach to any project with the intention of minimizing the impact on resources," Young said.

He believes we must consider future generations. A new home can be quite "green," but it requires infrastructure, like a new road and water and electricity lines. "My personal approach has been to recapture what I can," he said.

The Plachta's remodeling was different than the Young's because their home was built in the 1950s.

They didn't have to consider historical preservation. Yet there were similarities between the two projects.

Both couples hired architects to help them. Both took pains to build green. Both had to compromise.

They had to think about payback, for example. They had to decide, "If we go with this energy-saving design or appliance, how many years will it take us to recover the cost?"

Since the average family stays only five years in a home, an investment is usually considered worthwhile if the energy savings pays for itself in five years. But a five-year payback is no big deal to the Youngs and the Plachtas. Another way in which these couples are alike is that they have homes they want to live in forever.

The Young house