Luxury Real Estate

By Robert Lockard

In the winter 2009 issue of LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine (this link will start working in December 2008 when the magazine is published) I wrote an article entitled “Seeing Green: Living eco-friendly without sacrificing luxury.” In that article I mentioned a number of links and resources awaiting readers online. As promised, here they are! Check out the following Web sites for valuable information on what you can do today to start enjoying the benefits of “green” homes. In addition, I included links to the personal blogs/sites of the five Luxury Real Estate members and Eco-Brokers who I interviewed for this article. They were very helpful in the writing process and I’m sure you’ll find them to be extremely helpful in the home buying and selling process:

“Green” Organizations and Resources
www.buildinggreen.com: An independent publishing company focused on “green” building materials and methods.

www.builditgreen.org: A nonprofit dedicated to promoting “green” building in California by providing education, professional directories and more.

www.builtgreen.net: The Built Green™ logo signifies a property meets rigorous “green” standards. Based in Western Washington.

www.earthcrafthouse.com: Founded in 1999, EarthCraft House™ certifies new homes in Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and Virginia as “green” based upon high standards.

www.greenhomeguide.org: Sponsored by the U.S. Green Building Council, this site offers a variety of resources for “greening” your home.

www.lowimpactliving.com: A tool for setting realistic goals based on your budget, location and other factors.

www.nahb.org: Formed in 1942, the National Association of Home Builders provides in-depth data on housing trends, including “green” homes.

www.southeastgreen.com: A user-friendly directory of businesses offering “green” products and services in the Southeast United States.

www.usgbc.org: Official site of the U.S. Green Building Council, a nonprofit composed of leaders from every sector of the building industry, which provides LEED™ standards for homes, businesses and more.



Blogs/Personal “Green” Sites:
www.cottenalston.com (Cotten Alston’s personal site)

www.roseannblacher.com (Roseann Blacher’s personal site)

http://maringreenrealestate.blogspot.com (Jonathan Marks’ blog, the only “green” blog in Marin County)

www.thebuckheadblog.com (Carson Matthews’ blog)

http://welcomehomegreen.typepad.com (Hannah Tai’s blog)

By Donna Sapolin
From her magazine article: Decorati Designer Feature: Robert Passal, Style Infusion

Welcome to a designer feature by Decorati, the online resource for high-end interior design. In this post, we are featuring New York-based interior designer Robert Passal, who has transformed this 2,200-square-foot apartment on Manhattan’s tony upper eastside. See below for some tips that you can use for staging your next home.

His mission: to diffuse the banality of new construction by administering a healthy dose of visual intrigue to heartily lived-in, white-box rooms devoid of interior architecture.

Designed for a couple with two infants, his furnishings plan shuns the sort of precious, hands-off quality that some elegant schemes engender and, instead, welcomes the thrills and spills of everyday life with wear-resistant surfaces and a few colors that politely refuse to show the (sometimes grubby) touch of human hands. Passal’s design concept focused on the creation of dimension and interest through geometry and texture.

LIVING ROOM:

“I use art lamps all over, even in unexpected places, like [in] a powder room over a toilet.”

Entrants to the living room are struck by a strong sense of interior architecture forged by the grid work frame of a Holly Hunt armchair, the x-shaped bottoms of two leather stools, the circular form of a brushed steel B & B Italia side table, and the rectangular shapes of a glass-topped copper Martha Sturdy coffee table and custom-designed cantilevered media cabinet.

DINING ROOM:

The geometric motifs extend to the dining room where a pair of Oly leather chairs and a custom banquette sidle up to an oak table supported by two trios of x-shaped legs. Passal painted the baseboards a deep chocolate tone and carried the color across the bottoms of the Belgian linen drapes, into the cotton velvet upholstery on the banquette and onto its stained base.

“Whenever I am short on surfaces in a room, I use the dining table for art – here, I placed a cast bronze sculpture under the fixture.”


Editor’s Note:
The full version of this article can be found in Decorati’s Access Magazine. Donna Sapolin has written a number of articles for this magazine, and they are definitely worth checking out. This looks like a great luxury property. Luxury Real Estate recently partnered with Decorati to share content between the two sites. You can find my “Hot Spots for Yachts” article from the spring 2008 issue of LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine published on Decorati here. Very exciting!