Monterey County Weekly

The Big Idea: Sunset's new green showcase house will call Monterra home

August 2, 2007

Today, Aug. 2, a collection of distinguished local politicians and planners are gathering in the hills above Highway 68 to mark the next step toward erecting a house made of ideas. Congressman Sam Farr, Assemblyman John Laird and Resource Management Agency Deputy Director Alana Knaster are joining reps from the Monterey Business Council and Monterra (where the house will be built) to do their ribbon-cutting, ground-breaking thing for the 2008 Sunset Magazine Green Building Idea House.

While the house itself won’t appear on site until its scheduled July ’08 completion date, its slick design concepts will give event attendees plenty to talk about. Like past Idea Houses—the last two landed in Lake Tahoe (with rammed earth walls) and San Francisco (with its own wind turbine)—this house will integrate the smartest ideas in green building: Each room of the 6,800-square-foot home will open to either a garden or deck; reclaimed timber will appear everywhere; cisterns and photovoltaic cells will come into play in new ways. Sunset plans to start conducting tours a month after the home is finished and anticipates 30,000 visitors all told.

The greater implications are also interesting. “This can only be helpful,” says Laird, who recently authored AB 1058 to establish California Green Building Best Practices. “It’s helpful in Monterey County, where they’re trying to use it to inspire local people to utilize green building practices.

“It also puts us on the map nationally with an example of how green practices work very well. Not many of us could afford to a 6,800-square-foot house here, but it takes something that big to demonstrate all the different pieces of green building in a way that means something to everyone.”