Posted on: Friday, March 7, 2003
Showcase of Las Vegas townhouse features view, energy efficiency
By Alan J. Heavens
Knight Ridder News Service
HENDERSON, Nev. — We don't build houses anymore. We build lifestyles for demographic markets.
We target a group — successful professional single women in their mid-40s, for example — and build houses designed to meet their requirements.
If we build them in the Nevada desert within sight of the glitter of Las Vegas, we make sure they have a view, including the chocolate-colored hills that pop out of the sand.
That sums up this year's New American Home, the National Council of the Housing Industry's showcase of new building technologies, products and marketing strategies during the annual National Association of Home Builders' convention.
This year's effort, at the Lake Las Vegas Resort in this sprawling suburb about 23 miles and 28 excruciating minutes by car from the Las Vegas Convention Center, is actually three attached townhouses, clustered around a central courtyard.
John Ted Mahoney, a Massachusetts builder and council member, said this was the first townhouse project in the 20-year history of the New American Home.
"If you have three, it also gives ... a chance to show more products," Mahoney acknowledged.
So there you have it: three townhouses filled with goodies from manufacturers, and a chance to design lifestyles for three demographics.
The highlights: the view; the kitchens, designed by chef Todd English; and the way the indoor and outdoor spaces flow into one another.
In a resort area such as Las Vegas, the view cannot be ignored, said the builder, Chet Nichols of AmLand Development.
One of the three-story townhouses was designed for empty nesters, a group that often prefers or has physical need of one-story living. However, Nichols said, single-level townhouses could not take advantage of the view in the same way a multistory townhouse could.
"Buyers in a resort pay more for the view," he said. "A builder here can't get away from that."
The townhouses received an EnergyStar certificate from the U.S. Department of Energy because the builder was able to reach a Home Energy System rating of 90, which represents a 50 percent reduction in space conditioning and hot-water energy use, said Mark Ginsberg, the official presenting the award.
"Buyers can save thousands of dollars a year with these building techniques, and we estimate a combined savings of $140 billion a year if all builders adopted them," Ginsberg said.
Thermal mass is the key to offsetting the slow broil of the desert summer. This house features a thermal shell of R-20 walls with spray-foam insulation developed by Icynene Inc., of Canada.
Use of this insulation is just one of the healthy-house techniques incorporated into the construction.
Farnsworth noted that the smallest townhouse — designed for a family of three (including an 8-year-old daughter) — had no carpets, thus minimizing dust, and that the furniture had fabrics that could be sponged off for cleaning.
The energy-efficient features used can add $20,000 to the price of a house, Nichols said, "and recovery time for this initial cost can be extremely long."
