Mid Century Modern Kitchen opened up to Bay View and Green Products

Kathryn and David are getting married. The environmental lawyer and anti-nuclear smuggling scientist own a mid century modern house in Oakland with sweeping views of the bay, Alameda and San Francisco. Their original 1954 kitchen was hidden behind a wall that obscured a jaw-dropping 50 foot glass wall that bathes the living and dining rooms with light and stunning views. "I was ready to take a sledgehammer and knock down that wall myself",

said Kathryn.


She found Geoconserve Remodeling through Angies List to do the job instead.

The couple worked with George Matthews, owner of Geoconserve to design a new, open kitchen to center the modernist house. "We entertain often so the kitchen has to work hard and let the cook be the center of attention." says Kathryn. To speed the remodel process, the couple chose to go with Ikea birch cabinets. "I didn't want to wait months for custom cabinets so Ikea made sense." says Kathryn.

George: "I favor recycled materials and had recently met the Vetrazzo countertop rep at the AIA convention in San Francisco. I was sold on the dazzling countertop material and was thrilled when the couple went with the glass surface for their kitchen.


My objective is to bring on new, efficient, energy technologies and Kathryn and David were completely with me on that. The item that I am most proud of here is that we used all LED lighting in the kitchen aside from four 20 watt halogens in the hood fan. The kitchen is really well lit with about 140 watts not counting the 80 watts of halogen. LED technology is improving rapidly and the cost is coming down fast. This is what the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy calls market transformation. They could go for 25 or 30 years before needing to change one of these lights.

I do not know of any other projects relying completely on LEDs for lighting. I consider the range hood halogens to be food warmers. The often missed point about such a long lived and low energy product is that it miniaturizes the expensive solar electric panels that a full renewable energy retrofit would require.

This has been my favorite project to date because the clients were such a joy to work with. We've become friends and are allies in creating a new energy economy. Both clients work at a national laboratory and understand the importance of advancing energy technologies. In this project we show off recycled glass countertops, LED lighting, highly efficient appliances, polyurethane foam insulation in the wall, cotton batts in the ceiling, a hybrid gas/electric stove. Even the refrigerator has all LED lighting.

Good ventilation and a quiet interior environment are important so the GE hybrid gas/electric stove and broan extractor fan work well together. One can bake in the electric oven during the winter and not need to ventilate which helps warm the house. The gas burners are big enough to quickly wok Asian stir-fry and the big fan can handle all the combustion gasses. The fan is also very quiet so the cook can carry on a conversation while working the stove, a big deal while entertaining.

The Bosch dishwasher is also a joy because it is so quiet. Imagine tidying up at the end of a dinner party and getting all the dinner plates, pans and glasses in and washing - you can still have a quiet conversation while the dishwasher cleans. This one is so well insulated that David opened it up while it was going, he thought it was off.