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This annual public tour on Saturday October 4 highlights the latest in Santa Barbara design by AIA architects. The theme this year is “Sustainable Living,” and focuses on sustainability, re-use, environmental compatibility, and energy economy. Join us from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for a tour of eight projects ranging from new and remodeled houses, multi-family residences, and forward-thinking commercial/institutional designs. You are invited to see the properties in any order you choose, and spend as much time as you like at each one. Smoking and photography are not permitted. The tour will be followed by a festive after-party from 4:30-7:00 pm hosted by Hayward Design Center.

Habitat for Humanity SSBC Canon Perdido Condos

DMHA Architecture and Interiors
Habitat for Humanity SSBC Canon Perdido Condos

The project contains 12-100% affordable low and very-low income units. The sustainability goals of the project are to provide a comfortable healthy home for the homeowners with low operating costs. Passive House design strategies were incorporated and 1 3-unit building will achieve PH Certification. Energy savings are projected to be between 70% and 80% better than current Title 24 standards and the project well exceeds the 30% target for Santa Barbara Built green level 4. Features include super-Insulated building shell, energy efficient doors and windows, high efficiency framing, Heat Recovery Ventilation, and an air sealed building envelope.


Mesa Residence

Kevin Dumain, DesignARC
Mesa Residence

This Mesa residence for an Architect and his wife brings the modern indoor outdoor California lifestyle to a coastal bungalow. The 3 story design with a small footprint on a tight site leaves room for outdoor living and provides southern exposure to all the primary living spaces within this passive solar home. Throughout the project leftover and reclaimed materials have been put to use. Site walls have been constructed from concrete rubble, mirror frames from leftover bamboo flooring, and towel bars made from a broken boat mast.


UCSB Ocean Science Education Building

EHDD Architecture
UCSB Ocean Science Education Building

The Ocean Science Education Building is made up of two spaces: the south wing houses the LEED-Gold-certified headquarters for the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary (CINMS), and the north wing, once finished, will house the Outreach Center for Teaching Ocean Science (OCTOS), to provide hands-on marine education for K-12 students. The collaboration between UC Santa Barbara and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) set aggressive environmental goals from the beginning, designing the facility to be an educational tool inside and out. The building utilizes daylighting, dimmable fixtures, and smart lighting controls to reduce electricity use, and waterless urinals, dual-flush toilets, and low-flow faucet fixtures to cut indoor water use by half. The site’s drought-tolerant landscape, irrigated completely by reclaimed water, incorporates two retention basins fed by bioswales to collect, retain, and filter stormwater runoff.


Overlook House Renovation Subtraction

Ensberg Jacobs Design Inc.
Overlook House Renovation Subtraction

This 2,623 SF single story ranch house was designed by Santa Barbara Architect Peter Edwards in 1977. Years later the home’s primary view was blocked by a new home. The new design needed to: respect the original, while improving light, function, circulation and comfort. The rework of this classic Southern California Ranch House perched above the Pacific Ocean has restored vitality into an important architectural genre and recycled a worn structure back into service – with the unusual and bold decision to reduce overall square footage and to increase garden area.


Synergy Business and Technology Center

DMHA Architecture + Interior Design
Synergy Business and Technology Center

This commercial exterior and interior renovation project involved the complete recycling and re-purposing of a 1920’s era vintage warehouse to create a new GREEN by design state-of-the-art business incubator and co-working facility near downtown Santa Barbara. The interior architecture of SYNERGY embodies the spirit of today’s entrepreneurial startup culture… lean, clean and inspired by functional design. The existing warehouse interior was transformed to highlight the massive existing Douglas Fir wood beams and columns that are over 85 years old. Overall the SYNERGY project represents a unique and contemporary recycling of an urban industrial warehouse facility into a GREEN workplace of the future.


Taylor Residence

John D. Kelley, Architect 
Taylor Residence

In November 2008, the Tea Fire destroyed the original home on this spectacular hillside view property. The owner wanted to replace it with an identical building, however the original rustic timber-frame residence from the 1960’s could not be rebuilt under current codes. The new design honors the unique character of the original while the interior was revised to meet the owner’s current preferences. Structural integrity, fire safety, and energy efficiency were all improved Significantly and fire-safe, drought tolerant landscaping integrates the home into the site.


Tomeo Residence

Harrison Design Associates
Tomeo Residence

This project is infused with artistic celebration. This was not the original plan. What began as a moderate remodel for vacation use quickly turned into a major remodel that updated and expanded a 1950’s contemporary ranch. The clients’ goal was also to make the home as energy self-sufficient as possible. The interior of the house was opened up for volume and connected indoor and outdoor spaces. A new butterfly configuration for the roof created space for installing a 5kW system.The landscape design created inviting spaces that include a new pool, deck, turtle pond, a high tech fountain, and ocean view bocce court.


Victoria Garden Mews

Thompson Naylor Architects
Victoria Garden Mews

Victoria Garden Mews located in downtown Santa Barbara, is one of the greenest multi-family projects in California. This LEED Platinum Certified project includes four homes surrounding a peaceful garden, with an emphasis on beautiful design, cutting-edge technology, and sustainable building and living practices within walking/biking distance of city attractions. The project is the vision of three families who had the goal of making this project as green as possible. The four separate homes, tied together through an integrated landscape, was conceived, designed and built by the families involved and their team of architects and landscape designer, in full compliance with the demanding requirements of the Santa Barbara El Pueblo Viejo.

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