Page 25 - Green Builder Magazine March-April 2018 Issue

Net Zero HOME OF THE YEAR AWARDS

10th Annual
Best Historic Remodel
Victorian

This classic Twin Cities home goes from

‘remuddled’ to sustainably remodeled.

BY ALAN NADITZ

HEN STEWART AND LINDA HERMAN bought
what would become known as the Minneapolis
Net Zero Victorian, their goals were simple:
Preserve and enhance the traditional character of
the now 111-year-old home, and seamlessly reach
net-zero-energy living in their retirement without
W sacrificing any modern conveniences.
According to SALA Architects Senior Associate Marc Sloot, the
project’s architect, the Hermans—a pair of retiring college professors—
wanted their passion for education and the environment to carry
over to this massive rebuild. “Seeing the effects of global warming,
and the huge number of aging houses that need improvement, [they]
wanted to set an example for net-zero remodeling,” Sloot says.
After spending their careers living in the Fargo region, the Hermans
wanted a home in a dense residential Twin Cities neighborhood
that would make for a challenging remodel. Finding that house was
relatively easy: a bank foreclosure, built in 1907, on a tight 40-by-120
lot with a number of poorly designed additions by a previous owner.
Although the house was filled with what Sloot likes to call
“remuddled” efforts, “it was a house that had some good bones and
a real charm to it,” he notes. “We could tell it had a really great
potential.”
The home had a south-facing roof, which ordinarily should have
made it a match for one of the Hermans’ top requirements: passive
solar. But the project’s tiny lot resulted in only a 15-foot wall-to-wall Light it up. Solar-powered lighting is a major part of the Net Zero
clearance from neighboring homes. Existing trees also ruled out Victorian, from the Mother Nature-produced form that streams through
highly efficient photovoltaic use. “We knew passive solar was out of windows, to carefully situated LED lamps.

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