Farley/Kelly Residence - Tucson, AZ

The Farley house addition in Blenman-Elm Neighborhood in Tucson represents responsible development practices in that we are infilling an urban lot, and adaptively reusing and renovating an older home. The design also incorporates recycled materials (cotton insulation from old blue jeans, and a floor deck of recycled plastic). We have designed a rainwater harvesting system into the project as well. Thus we are able to meet the owner's needs economically, and also address larger societal and environmental concerns. 

Although it is built using wood frame construction (not my first choice, but an economical method), wood can be an environmentally responsible material. If properly harvested, wood is a renewable resource: one can always plant a new tree after having cut one down, whereas you can't grow a steel beam, which requires mining and smelting -- operations that use fossil fuel and create greenhouse gases. The US Forest Stewardship Council (www.fscus.org) also certifies wood as "sustainable" if it is harvested in a manner that doesn't destroy the ecosystem (i.e. no clear-cutting of old-growth forests) and that can be kept up (sustained). Hence, tree farms are on the rise, as businesses recognize the need to plan for their own future, as well as that of the planet.