Green Building is the practice of increasing the efficiency with which buildings and their sites use, recycle and harvest energy, materials and water.  This philosophy reduces the impact of construction and human and vehicular activities on human health and upon the health of the environment in which we live.

We accomplish this through selection of recycled materials, use of more energy-efficient systems, locating buildings and their walls, windows, roofs and other surfaces in such a way as to minimize their energy consumption.  This is accomplished with attention to the initial, or capital cost, life-cycle cost (cost to operate over the life of the building), required energy to maintain and eventually remove and recycle into future facilities.

Green Building is also referred to as Sustainable Design (or environmental construction), although sustainable facilities have a keener focus on the use of materials that can be sustained by our culture indefinitely, without depleting our natural resources.  Green Building is one aspect of Sustainable Design.  We approach improved Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and reduced environmental impact as a subset of Green Architectural principles.  We seek to attain aesthetic and ecological harmony between our buildings and adjoining environment.  Our desire is to create architecture that appears to have naturally grown from the rocks, trees, bushes and mountains of their setting.  There seems to be a growing realization that what humans, as a species, build, operate and move, affects the micro and macro climate of our world.

RAND SOELLNER ARCHITECT HAS BEEN CREATING “GREEN” ARCHITECTURE FOR DECADES:

Rand Soellner Architect has been creating, using and designing with these concepts since the 1970’s.  Rand created the master site plan and concept design for the new Florida Solar Energy Center in Cocoa Beach, Florida in the late 1980’s, for the University of Central Florida.  Mr. Soellner also helped Orange County, Florida to cleanse and renovate 4 “sick buildings” in the 1990’s (which were not created by him or his company).

RECYCLED MATERIALS, REDUCED TRASH: Since then, Rand Soellner has been creating wonderful homes and other buildings in naturalistic settings, using recycled materials (like the slate-look Eco-Star roof shingles on his Falcon Cliff Lodge, 2006, Cashiers, NC which are actually recycled rubber and plastic).  Designs like this reduce landfill trash and make use of products that incorporate reuse of irreplaceable resources.  Rand Soellner Architect also makes use of historic recycled timbers and boards into his Mountain Homes, for a timeless quality that also makes reuse of wood with character.

PROTECTION OF MAJOR GLASS AREAS: Rand also uses major glass and window areas toward the view, which is an inescapable requirement for mountain view homes.  He incorporates large roof overhangs over these areas, to shield them from direct sun, thereby aiding the comfort of the home’s interior spaces while reducing the air-conditioning requirements.

REDUCED MAINTENANCE: Soellner homes also receive a special waterproof roofing underlayment (warranted by the material provider) that protects the sub-surface portions of your roof better than traditional asphaltic felt, for only pennies more per square foot, thereby extending the life of your roof system and structure.  This modest upgrade in cost reaps tremendous benefits years later, when most people would be replacing their roofs, not to mention saved inconvenience.  Rand Soellner has always sought to reduce maintenance of his projects for the owners.

Client call from Eagle Mountain Aerie, 4/2007: “I just wanted to thank you for creating this home for me and my family.  I have a very busy and hectic life in Florida, and coming here to North Carolina and being in this home overlooking the trees and lake is wonderfully relaxing and rejuvenating.  Thank you for designing my home.”

Client call from Adirondack Dream, 2006: “My wife and I are finishing moving in furniture and we are, for the first time, sitting where you imagined us to be, months earlier. . . We are seeing the views you framed for us and now understand how you have captured the best of what this site had to offer.  Thank you!”