Michelle Kaufmann watches modular green construction

Architect Michelle Kaufmann, standing in front of Casa Chiara in northwest Denver, thinks homes should come with the equivalent of "nutritional labels" listing sustainability features.

Nationally known architect Michelle Kaufmann,  Sister Sue Artone-Fricke and I watched the giant crane lift the super-energy efficient, modular homes placed on the Marycrest Convent campus in northwest Denver, from a dirt-perch high above the construction site.

“It’s thrilling,” said California-based Kaufmann, who is best known for her energy efficient and cost- effective Glidehouse, as she looked at the biggest project she has yet designed.

“Every time I see these cranes lift these homes, I just love it,” Kaufmann told me. “It seems to defy logic, yet it is so logical. And yet, at the same time, it is so logical.”

She is proud that the homes she designed are built in a factory, a much more cost effective and energy efficient than traditional stick construction. She notes that people don’t typically assemble their cars on their driveway. Building homes on site makes about as much sense, she said.

Sister Artone-Fricke, who watched her bedroom delivered to the site two weeks ago, and today saw it put in place, was equally as thrilled. She visits the construction site a lot. Don’t tell anyone, but she and some nuns even squeeze through a hole in the fence at night to wander around.

“I don’t come every day, because I do not want to nick pick,” she said. “But I love it. When they first got here, it was just surreal.”

Kaufmann is designing the homes for Susan Powers, head of Urban Ventures.  Urban Ventures is developing about 17 acres of the site, which ultimately will include about 270 units – including 110 apartments. The 160 for-sale homes will range in size from 960 square feet to 1,600 square feet and be priced from about $250,000 to $500,000.

“They basically will be NetZero homes, ” meaning they will produce at least as much energy as they consume. They could easily qualify for LEED-ratings, but they aren’t spending the money to get the designation, she said.

The solar photovoltaic panels will produce so much power that it is the equivalent of vehicle driving 70,735 fewer miles each year and the equivalent of planting 2,487 trees.

They will use CFL  and LED light bulbs, Energy Star appliances, double-pane, low-e glass windows, 90 percent-plus energy efficient furnaces, tankless water heaters, Xeriscape landscaping, high-performance insulation, state-of-the-art air filtration systems, and no VOC paints, just to name a few things. Kaufmann said she would like to do even more. For example, she would like to re-use gray water, but “you’ve got these quirky laws that make it difficult.” That is something they will be lobbying for in future phases, she said.

They also are re-using doors from the razed Queen of Peace building that made way for the first phase on the campus as desks, bricks from the razed buildings for landscaping, and incorporating iron railings from the Marycrest Convent.

But being green is tricky, Kaufmann told me.

“Bamboo floors have become sort of the poster-child for the green movement,” Kaufmann said. “It’s become so popular that some people are buying it as cheap as possible from workers who are toiling under horrible conditions. We’re very careful about who are suppliers are from. And some builders are slapping toxic glue underneath the floors, which is not good.”

She also is aware that bamboo shipped from Asia, also contributes to greenhouse gases because it has to be transported such a long distance. For that reason, they are always on the outlook for nearby sources  of wood that has been salvaged and can be incorporated into developments.

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