Anyone who tours Millennium II–the 14,000-plus-square-foot house with amoeba-shaped indoor swimming pool, three kitchens, five fireplaces, elevator, putting green and mini driving range–will hear that the grandiose house is healthy, environmentally friendly “green” and energy-efficient.
My bet is that visitors, at $15 a pop, will go away thinking that this three-level house sitting on two acres near Glen Ellyn is the smartest house they’ve ever been in (and, of course, probably the biggest).
How many residences have water-leak detectors, each no bigger than an old-fashioned mouse-trap, that can send an e-mail alerting a plumber to hustle over and check out that tiny dribble of water next to the washing machine–and specify that it’s the washer in the basement, not the one on the main level?
The Health House has a slew of these detectors, next to toilets, boilers or anything that uses or holds water.
How many homeowners can tap any of several control panels that resemble small TV screens, located in eight of the home’s 16 rooms, to regulate the temperature and the humidity of every zone in the house?
Those zones would include, naturally, the great room, the lanai (a living area adjacent to the pool), the dining room, the incongruously combined library/media room, the gargantuan master bedroom and its separate sitting room, the two other bedrooms, the seven bathrooms, two powder rooms, the multiple kitchens, the home office, exercise room, basement entertainment room (think bowling alley) and even the cedar-lined tornado/hurricane shelter.
That’s only for starters, what’s plainly visible. The house has more bells and whistles than a 21st Century castle and then some; it’s more akin to the Boston Pops performing a rousing John Philip Sousa march than it is to a chamber group playing a serene Mozart quartet.
This house is open to the public weekends through Sept. 9. To be totally upfront with possible shoppers, this single-family house has already been sold to a mature couple who want space to entertain family and friends.
Once the owners move in and adjust to their lives’ rhythms, there’ll be no pollen, no mold or mildew, no fumes from a fireplace or garage. That’s because this is a Health House, the first such residence constructed in the state, according to the American Lung Associations of both Minnesota and Illinois.
The Minnesota ALA region pioneered this program in 1993; it has since been adopted as a national program, according to Harold Wimmer, executive director of the ALA of Illinois.
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Built by Scott Sevon, president of Palatine-based Sevvonco Inc., the house was designed by Styczynski, Walker & Associates of Willowbrook.
Wimmer said Sevvonco went “over and above the association’s minimum requirements to ensure that the entire structure meets the maximum standards.”
He lauded the suburban builder’s adherence to the ALA criteria, especially in these areas: Advanced framing (construction) techniques; high efficiency air filtration and ventilation; humidity control; and sealing of appliances, ducts, walls, etc.
“This house is tight, that is, free of openings that would allow contaminated or unfiltered air to enter the structure,” said Wimmer. He added that humidity control “is probably the most important aspect because humidity is the basis for mold growth, molds that trigger asthma.”
He also praised the waterproofing of the exterior of the foundation exterior.
The advantages of building healthy, said Wimmer, include improved air quality and a comfortable living environment; less toxic building products; energy efficiency; less maintenace.
Wimmer noted that the Health House concept increases construction costs of the house by 5 to 7 percent. However, “the owners should see a 30 percent savings in energy.”
The fairly recent discovery of the dangers of mold, the awareness of the home’s role in dealing with allergies or asthma have caused many owners to seek out healthy building products.
What may be surprising is that some cabinets–more so than carpets, insulation or wall paints–are the greatest source of formaldehyde emissions, or outgassing (the discharge of volatile organic compounds or VOCs).
Nicole Neff, vice president of marketing for Neff Kitchen Mfg., Ontario, Canada, says her firm has been producing cabinets for the chemically sensitive for a decade. She said the Neff cabinets (used in the Health House) are made of a moisture-resistant plywood instead of particle board manufactured with urea-formaldehyde-based glues.
Traditionally, the chemically sensitive were limited to stainless steel, she said, noting that the firm’s drawer bottoms are lined with surgical stainless steel to further reduce harmful emissions.
Ideally, a healthy house has hard surface floors and uses natural fabrics (wool, cotton, silk, linen).
The showcase home has marble, porcelain and granite floors, with natural wood in the basement (for the dance floor, of course) and even the grout is health-approved.
Unfortunately, that’s not the case with the all of the furnishings.
“We tried where we could,” said Laurie Smith, owner of Piconke Smith Design of Woodbridge, who directed the interior’s design.
Smith, incoming president of the Illinois chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers, said the home’s owner did not find the health-approved carpeting “aesthetically pleasing,” preferring synthetic carpeting.
“I tried to make my selections using natural fabrics where possible (silk draperies, hypoallergenic down), but we had to make the home owner happy so in some cases we sacrificed health issues,” Smith said.
“Healthy furnishings are in their infancy and will have to catch up to building products,” she added.
Visitors may not realize or notice synthetic fabrics, plastic flowers and trees. They’ll be so busy ogling the lavish decor, fancy ceilings, ornate chandeliers, leaded and etched windows, multi-spout showers, murals here there and everywhere.
On the green front, the house makes use of recycled products. There was no teardown involved and, according to Sevon, “only one tree was sacrificed on the lot for building the home.”
And, the house has the highest rating for energy-efficiency, the OK of the Energy Star program.
But, the lingering memories and impact of the house are bound to revolve around technology, especially for those who take the time to tour and learn about the equipment in the two very large mechanical rooms.
They are the heart of this home, they keep it alive, whether anyone is inside or off in Switzerland on vacation. Practically every system can alert services of problems and practically anything can be remotely controlled.
An impressive element is the back-up power generator, particularly for a house loaded with everything electronic. If there’s a power supply failure, the GenX natural gas back-up generator automatically and an alert is sounded to GenX to get on the case. Another back-up, the GenX PowerBanc , an indoor installation about the size of a jukebox, reacts instantly to back up computers and everything electronic.
Among other highlights: The home is hot-water heated through tubes under the floors; there are three boilers; and three sump pumps are in sealed pits, six feet deep rather than the standard 30 inches. They’re on a system that detects harmful radon gas and ventilates it through a pipe up to the roof and into the atmosphere.
Sevon acknowledges that there are some contradictions and conflicts in the matter of making a house healthy, green and energy efficient. Some insulation materials must be encapsulated in non-problematic materials. He notes, too that some natural products can trigger allergies or respiratory problems.
But can a home be healthy, green and energy-efficient, especially a house with more than 14,000 square feet?
Mark Nowak, a research vice president at the National Association of Home Builders Research Center, and the ALA’s Wimmer say the same standards apply whether a house is 3,000 or 14,000 square feet.
Interpreting “green,” healthy and energy-efficient can get a little dicey, believes Tom Forman, of Chicago Associates Planners and Architects and a professor of architecture at the University of Illinois Chicago.
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“There are rankings and measuring tools such as livability and spatial efficiency,” involving the three factors, said Forman, though they’re not all standard. “But, there’s a strong element in green that also ought to be considered and that is to build what you need and not two feet more.”
Nathan Kipnis of Evanston-based Nathan Kipnis Architects, indicated the point of having a home such as this one is to reduce impact on the environment. And, it could have been worse. They could have built a 14,000 square foot house that was non-green–think of the impact on the environment that would have.
Millennium II The Health House
Address: 22 W. Ahlstrand, just off Illinos Highway 53, in unincorporated Glen Ellyn
Phone: (847) 359-3591
Builder: Sevvonco Inc., Palatine
Description: A 14,000-plus-square-foot, two-story single-family home with basement on more than two landscaped acres. Constructed as an energy-efficient, environmentally-friendly and healthy house, it has 16 rooms including those finished and furnished in the basement.
Price: The house sold for $3 million, excluding the cost of its lot ($800,000) and furnishings (about $250,000).
Public open houses: From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; also Sept. 1-2 and Sept. 8-9. Parking and a shuttle bus are available from the south end of the Wal-Mart parking lot at Illinois Highway 53 and Butterfield Road.