Getting Started:

Below is a basic overview of how we work and frequently asked questions.
The links to our 'white papers' and blog provide additional background information.

BLOG - greenzoning.org, becuase green buildings need to live in green neighborhoods

White Papers:

Philosophy
Straw Bale Construction Specifics

Press:

Pre-Fabulous and Sustainable, Building and Customizing an affordable, energy-efficient home; hardcover, by Sheri Koones project: (The Log Cabin)

5280 Magazine, November 2007, The Energy Issue, The Ranchcover
Womens Magazine, October 2008, Men We Love: Brian Fuentes
Denver Post, October 24 2010, A second home that passes green muster. project: (The Log Cabin)
Denver Post, October 22 2008, Jeffco Home is a Bale-Out, Jules Javernick and Keith Brunel Residence project: (The Ranch)
The House Gore Should Have Built, The Denver Post, March 3, 2007 Diane Carman, project: (Net Zero Impact)

Boulder Green Building Journal, Fall 2007 Issue, pp 14-17, Net Zero Impact
Boulder County Home and Garden Magazine page 1 page 2 page 3
Boulder County Business Report, The Studio
Boulder Daily Camera, The Pop Top
Colorado Daily, Schuneman Residence page 2 page 3


Services we offer:

fuentesdesign helps you get from concept to reality. We offer a holistic approach to home design integrating architect, owner, and consultants from the beginning to achieve a result greater than the sum of its parts. Full Design Services provide what most clients need to get their home built right.

Additional Services can include helping you find the right site to accomplish your goals, developing a description of your goals and functional needs prior to starting design, called a program, as well as master planning a larger project. Additional services also includes Residential Building Energy Analysis to assess the energy efficiency of your existing home, diagnose problems, and prescribe possible solutions. We also can provide Green Building Consulting to architects, developers, contractors, owners or any group or company through our network of associates depending on the area of expertise.

Full Design Services includes:

Schematic Design:

After an initial design meeting and or program generation (see additional services), we develop a schedule, budget, basic plans, elevations, and materials and performance specifications for client review. This phase is billed hourly for the client to have an incentive to efficiently set goals and make decisions, and secondly to provide value to the client by not having to bid the design process, the most critical phase in adding value to the project.

Design Development:

We work this phase with an experienced contractor chosen by both the architect and owner to work in the Construction Manager, General Contractor role to help estimate costs as more detailed drawings and specifications are produced. This phase concludes with a drawing set and specifications for pricing. If the contractor's estimate is within the budget, the team continues on to construction documents. Energy modeling, using REM Design software, is used to estimate building performance in light of performance goals and fine tune building envelope and systems. This phase is part of a fixed fee agreement.

Construction Documents:

This phase includes construction ready, permit submittal documents including:
architectural plans, sections, elevations, details, and specifications
structural engineering
mechanical engineering for ventilation design as well as heating and cooling, geothermal, solar
electrical engineering for solar electric systems and efficient whole house management and economy switching
This phase is part of a fixed fee agreement.


Construction Administration:

This phase includes reviewing the project during construction and performance verification through LEED for Homes, Energy Star, or independent third party certification.
This phase is part of a fixed fee agreement.


Basic Building Costs:

Our contractor built, zero energy new homes on city lots with sewer and water tie start at $200/square foot. This includes everything but the land.
Zero energy ready buildings, not including renewable energy systems can be built starting at $175/square foot.
Owner/builders, those who not only manage their projects as the General Contractor but also do a large portion of the construction themselves, have built starting at $100/square foot.
These are estimates, based on projects currently under construction or recently completed, these are provided for rough rule of thumb purposes. Please contact us for more detailed information.

Compensation:

Services are billed hourly for schematic design (where we are defining the concept in basic plans, elevations and materials specifications) and fixed for permit/construction drawings. Typically, one can expect our total fees to run about 5-10% of construction cost depending on complexity and scope. Our hourly fees are $100/hr for principal/architect and $50/hr for drafter/designer. All changes during fixed fee phases initiated by the owner are billed hourly. Contact us for more detailed information regarding your project.