Our Ecotone Story
In the fall of 2010, a year after getting married, we started looking for acreage to build a second home. It would be an escape from our 400 square foot Brooklyn apartment, a place in the country with some space, somewhere you could grow tomatoes or shake out a rug. The dual lifestyle was something we had been thinking about for some time. We both loved living in the city and had no plans to relocate but we also loved being out in the country. The best of both worlds is how we thought of it. The desire for one seemed to accentuate the need for the other. Being able to live at both ends of the spectrum was key.
We started our search thinking we needed to be 1.5 to 2 hours from Brooklyn. Our limited budget was churning up some real dogs in the world of upstate properties - wooded lots ten times deep as they were wide, paper lots with no legal access. Some were swampy, some were spooky, some were downright scary. We realized we would need to extend our travel time and looked westward. Growing up in Binghamton, NY I spent summers on a lake in Starlight, PA. I was familiar with Callicoon, Roscoe, Livingston Manor, quaint hamlets a bit under the NYC radar back in the 1980s. I had fond memories of annual tubing and canoe trips along the scenic, pristine waters of the Upper Delaware River. This region of the Catskills was not exactly undiscovered but it was clearly a diamond in the rough. Forty years later, tourism in this sleepy section of the Catskills is bustling with second home building on the rise.
When our real estate agent brought us to a 15 acre parcel in North Branch, NY with views of rolling hills and cascading farmland we fell in love right away. Much larger than anything we had considered but priced to sell, the property was a real find. It consisted of two sloping hay fields under cultivation by a local farmer. A fringe of scrubby vegetation bisected the fields and bordered the wooded lots beyond. These edge habitats where fields approach woods and retired pastures rewild went unnoticed at first but after some time became our favorite, most inspiring spots on the property. Later identified as an ecotone - a transition zone between two ecological communities - we began to discover the special qualities of this unassuming territory. Here wildlife activity was heightened. A sanctuary for animals, these habitats offered a safe but busy space for nesting, foraging and raising young.
When it came time to build our house we had some strict limitations and some lofty aspirations. I was a NYC Architect with my own small firm specializing in high end residential renovations. The chance to build a house from the ground up was an opportunity to expand my knowledge and expertise; building a high performance house quickly became a priority. While sustainable design is an ever growing concern for current day Architects it is a rare opportunity to venture into the world of Passive House Design. We designed a small building envelope not much bigger than our apartment but efficiently laid out to accommodate two small bedrooms. Stick built, the structure was designed to have double stud construction with 14 inches of denspack cellulose providing a thick continuous layer of non-petroleum based insulation with no thermal bridging. Combined with airtight construction, a heat recovery ventilator and high performance windows and doors we achieved an indoor environment that offered excellent thermal comfort and air quality while requiring little heating and cooling in a part of the country where temperatures range from -20* F to 100* F.
By the time we started building we had two kids. The house still had to be small but it also had to accommodate our growing family. With much of our building budget going toward high performance construction we sought to bring back some of the square footage we had sacrificed in the form of a large, semi conditioned space. The semi enclosed porch rising a good 7 feet above the sloping hillside is one third of the house’s structure. Over the years we’ve spent much of our time there, eating, cooking, playing. It’s a cross over space where we raise and release monarch butterflies, where barn swallows nest every year and bring up their young, where you can stand outside and watch a thunderstorm roll in. You feel protected from the elements yet connected to the natural environment.
Over the years the property has brought us a great deal of joy. Having stumbled upon the ecotone, we have slowly, with low impact efforts, carved out magical spaces that are private, accessible, and plant and animal friendly. Our light interventions provide opportunities to be close to nature and observe it on its own terms. Every year we learn something new - that chirping sound is a tree frog, coyotes can really yodel, deer shed their antlers every year and mice eat them! For our kids who are Brooklyn born and bred it has been an indispensable education. Their knowledge about nature and the sense of responsibility they have for the environment comes from an exposure to a world otherwise unknown. It’s an experience we hope will inform their actions as they become adults in a world impacted so significantly by climate change.
Last year we started Ecotone Home in an effort to promote the building of high performance homes along with low impact land management. We see a lot of ground up construction with a scorched earth approach to development and very little concern for the effect buildings have on the environment. The advanced techniques and technologies of Passive House coupled with age-old wisdom and thoughtful architectural design can greatly reduce a home’s carbon footprint and can play a significant role in creating a climate resilient future.
We have developed a larger version of our house with predesigned options to accommodate a variety of spatial and budgetary needs. We have turned to a passive wall panel manufacturer for the envelope construction to speed up construction time and improve quality control. Our predesigned approach with adaptive flexibility simplifies the design and construction process without sacrificing choice and individuality. We offer landscaping services to provide our clients with a developed home site that is environmentally conscious and wholesomely experiential. We look forward to bringing in a new wave of high performance standards to home construction to the region and sharing the magic of the ecotone with fellow nature lovers.
