Sustainable Lakefront Home

Sustainable Lakefront Home
The living roofs provide habitat and have a greater insulation value and noise reduction properties, while protecting the lake by infiltrating rain and snow melt
This beautiful modern home with a Tahoe twist is very low maintenance, sustainable, and easy living. MWA, and principal architect Kristi Thompson, balanced comfort and luxury with high performance and efficiency. Eliminating the use of high-maintenance wood on the exterior of the home led to the creative use of metal for siding, exposed structure, and roof fascia, while utilizing color tones and roof lines typical of Tahoe. Sustainable features include a roof solar PV array, multi-panel solar-thermal hot water system, ground-source heat pump for hydronic floor heating, living green roofs, reclaimed wood throughout, and abundant natural ventilation and light.

2015 CATT Award - Sustainable Building Methods Project of the Year


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We built a home in the Lahontan Community in 2002-2003 that was designed by Kurt. We had already experienced a home designed by Kurt in Tahoe Donner that we had purchased earlier. Our satisfaction with the Tahoe Donner home was the reason we went to MWA for the Lahontan design. Having had some experience living in the Truckee area, we had some specific needs that we wished to be addressed for the Lahontan design. We articulated these needs in the form of a four page memorandum that we handed to Kurt when we sat down to discuss the project. Kurt took us to some completed homes that he had designed to help us visualize some ideas.

A couple of months later we were told that the draft plans were completed and ready for our review. We were delighted when we found that Kurt had found a way to address all of our needs. From our point of view the design was perfect. Moreover, Kurt had done this while taking maximum advantage of the attributes of the building site: the view of Lookout Mountain, the beautiful meadow and wildlife refuge behind the house and the lovely grove of Aspen trees on the property. We have lived in the home for 4 years and continue to be delighted with the design.

We found working with MWA to be easy and efficient. The communications were excellent every step of the way. Email was used to facilitate communications as we lived in the Bay area while the home was being built.

Overall, we found Kurt and MWA to be very responsive to our needs and very efficient to work with. The project was completed on budget and the architectural design costs were very reasonable.


-- Charlotte and George Hawley
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