The Clark residence is nestled among the Pinon and Juniper trees in the tail end of the Rockie’s in the outskirts of Santa Fe, New Mexico in an old Railway town, Lamy.  The homes vernacular is part industrial- agricultural and part rustic-contemporary.  This home pays homage to the ancient traditional building styles of Santa Fe, as the home has coloured clay plaster on the walls and an earthen clay floor through ought the home- to boot the earthen floor has in floor radiant heat.  Yet what is absolutely delightful about the home is that it is cutting edge green with solar thermal and solar photovoltaic systems and it has the highest certification available, Platinum, through LEED for homes . The home has a striking unconventional design, as it is a box within a box, In the center is the bathroom, laundry and a loft.

The Clarks contracted with Mark Giorgetti from Palo Santo Designs LLC to design and construct their small, efficient retirement home. They sought an integrated design approach bringing on all key players and expertise early in the design process so that all goals were met with an accurate budget, thus nothing got lost in translation.  The Clarks who were retiring and moving from Washington DC were deeply committed to building an environmentally appropriate home.  Mark Giorgetti holds a masters degree in Climate Change Management from the University of Edinburgh and has incredible expertise in the science of designing and building green homes.  Thus the two were a great fit; in fact Jack Clark camped on the property and helped through the entire construction process.

The biggest hurdle of this project was securing financing.  The home is built in a rural part of Santa Fe during the recession with little comparatives for home appraisers to compare the value of the home to.   Home appraisers already have a very difficult time appraising green homes, yet this home also has a non traditional design in that it is only one bedroom and one bath. Thus the home appraised from the plans for significantly less than it cost to build. Hence it took many meetings with bankers and quite a few different appraisals, and the trust of a local bank to make the project happen. Interestingly after the home it was built it appraised for many tens of thousands more.