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An outdated, energy-wasting home gets a complete makeover but retains its original character.
PROJECT DETAILS
> Location: Portland, Ore.
> Builder: Green Hammer Construction www. greenhammer.com
> Architect: Paul “Paolo” Scardina; Paolo Design Group www. paolodesigngroup.com


 


It would be easy to say that Paolo Scardina didn’t fall far from the family tree when he chose to become an architect.


After all, the Youngstown, Ohio, native’s father, grandfather, and great grandfather were all in the building and construction trades.


But it is a grandmother that Scardina designer of the gut-rehab that became Portland, Ore.’s first LEED Platinum home considers the mentor of his “green” sensibility.


“She was probably the most frugal person who ever lived on the planet,” he says, tracing the arc of his personal and professional life from Ohio to eight years in commercial design in San Francisco and ultimately to Portland, where he founded the Paolo Design Group in 1990.


“She was an Italian immigrant,” he adds. “She lived through the Great Depression. And she was extremely practical minded. It’s funny, the people who influence you early on in your life, that you identify with.


“She was a homemaker,” he continues. “She didn’t come from the world of architecture. She came from the world of life, and her philosophy was much bigger picture. It was all about living life and being frugal, growing your own food, and reclaiming everything that was around you in one form or another.”


“I think that transfers quite well when you start to talk about architecture and dwellings and sustainable spaces, and that perspective is exactly the core reason we have green building to reuse, reclaim and recycle ... and not waste,” he says. “My focus, even though building is in the blood, is on design and getting it right and getting it designed to be sustainable. Then we partner with builders who create what we design.”


Open Space, Sealed Envelope
Scardina says this particular project (which won a 2010 CotY NARI Green Award and an Outstanding Remodeling Achievement award from the Oregon Remodelers Association) found him at the Better Living Show in Oregon. “I met a gentleman, and after we spoke for a while, he says, I have this split-level ranch home that was built in 1957, and I want you to make it as green as you can possibly get it,’” Scardina recalls. “So I said, Well, how about LEED Platinum?’”


The client also wanted to make to make sure the house was marketable. “You know, mid-century ranch homes don’t have master suites on the main floor, and they don’t have open spaces for dining and living they are kind of like chopped up tiny rooms. So he wanted us to reconfigure it to five it some market value.,” Scardina says.


At first, some thought was given to adding an extension to the southern portion of the home but after studying the possibility, putting it on paper, and considering the costs, that option proved to be a nonstarter.


As it stood, the 2,700-square foot house had 2x4 walls, very poor insulation, windows that were leaking energy, and cold air “left and right,” Scardina says.


After a six-month design process, the Paolo Design Group opted to stay with the building’s original footprint, tear its interior down to the studs, and re-insu- late the structure from the inside out.


But instead of keeping the 2x4 studs, Scardina actually created a 4” thick wall on the interior of the footprint and then wove the insulation between the old studs and the new. “That created a very thick, very efficienct envelope, and prevented the thermal transfer of heat through the off -setting of the studs,” he says.


The first somewhat significant change to the home was claiming an unconditioned space adjacent to the garage in the lower level of the house. Previously, the space had served as a kind of combination cold storage space, wood shop, and closet.


Scardina realized that if he pulled the space into the thermal envelope, he would able to move a bedroom into the lower space and create the master suite with a bath on the upper level.


 

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