Video Stories

Life Inside a Colorado Home Inspired by Jimmy Carter’s Renewable Energy Push

February 20, 2025
ADMINISTRATOR
Combat Climate Change, Energy Efficient Home, Net Zero, Video Stories
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Listen to NoCO’s podcast of Erin O’Toole’s interview with John Avenson, homeowner, and Paul Kriescher, host of Heart of a Building discussing John’s home, trends in renewable energy and Colorado Environmental Film Festival Jimmy Carter’s administration had backed the design of some experimental homes along Colorado’s Front Range. Warmed by the sun and fueled by renewable sources – an exciting idea in the late 1970s. John Avenson was inspired by Jimmy Carter and wanted to live in one of the experimental homes.…

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Avenson House - we made our goal. Watch the video.

JOHN AVENSON RESIDENCE — WATCH THE EPISODE HERE!

September 9, 2024
INFO HEART OF A BUILDING, llc
Energy Efficient Building, Energy Efficient Home, Net Zero, New Episodes, Rocky Mountain PBS, Single-Family, Video Stories
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John Avenson Residential Project, Westminster, Colorado | At 9 years old John became interested in the concept of green building on a family tour of the Colorado Indian Cliff Dwellings, where the park ranger told him that the Indians dug their caves on the side of the cliff as the winter sun kept them warm. The Avenson Residence, a single-family, detached, three-bedroom home, was built in 1981 as a research house by the Solar Energy Research Institute [SERI, the forebearer…

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THRIVE VITALITY HOMES

November 21, 2021
ADMINISTRATOR
Rocky Mountain PBS, Single-Family, Video Stories
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Thrive Vitality Homes, Denver, Colorado | Each Vitality home features luxurious architecture combined with Thrive’s trademark Zero Energy construction, LEED certification, and a focus on cleaner indoor air. Vitality Thrive Homes are production built, single-family homes, which deliver zero-energy and zero-emission housing available to hundreds of home buyers every year in the Denver Metro area. Thrive’s decades-long vision was to optimize the health of the buyer. They did this by enhancing indoor air quality, comfort, and eliminating the home’s carbon…

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NANTES PUBLIC LIBRARY

November 21, 2021
ADMINISTRATOR
Commercial, Rocky Mountain PBS, Video Stories
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Nantes Public Library, Gilcrest, Colorado | Nantes Public Library is a near passive house-compliant public building. The building design brought outstanding daylighting and comfort for occupants while delivering low utility bills [for the taxpayers of the district]. It has become the gem of the High Plains Library District. The project has merged people who had both conservative and progressive viewpoints to work together to create a building that is an example of being in ever greater harmony with Nature. Project…

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L’AVENIR LUXURY TOWNHOMES

November 19, 2021
ADMINISTRATOR
Multi-Family, Rocky Mountain PBS, Video Stories
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L’Avenir Luxury Townhomes, Ft. Collins, Colorado | The L’Avenir townhomes, a 4-unit rowhome nestled next to Old Town Ft. Collins, Colorado, embodies a lifetime of design work and learning from the wife and husband team of Laurie and Bob Davis of Davis/Davis Architects. They deliver homes with an exceptionally light footprint on the Earth. Project Highlights Net zero-energy/zero-emissions  1-foot thick walls with extensive air-sealing, filled wall cavities, and exterior insulation Ground-source heat pump for heating and cooling with radiant delivery…

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GREENSPIRE APARTMENTS

September 8, 2020
ADMINISTRATOR
Multi-Family, Rocky Mountain PBS, Video Stories
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Greenspire Apartments, Longmont, Colorado | Greenspire is Colorado’s first Passive House-inspired apartment building, providing 44 healthy, affordable studio apartments built with the heart-centered “why” of leaving the world a better place for future generations. Developer/Builder Gary Kinzie worked with Cody and Lisa Farmer of Mainstream Corporation to design a building that uses features like airtight construction and 30% more insulation than Code requires to optimize regenerative performance and affordability. Cody and Lisa Farmer did the energy-efficiency analysis and Passive House…

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CON FRANK / WES GEARY RESIDENTIAL PROJECT

September 8, 2020
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Rocky Mountain PBS, Single-Family, Video Stories
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Con Frank / Wes Geary Residential Project, Aurora, Colorado | This residential home was built by Con Frank and during construction became highly appreciated by Wes Geary, who eventually became the inspired buyer. Con Frank is an inventive, self-taught designer and builder who needed to “prove it could be done.” Homeowner Wes Geary decided to invest in a new house out of a conviction that “some things are more important than money.” A shared belief in sustainability was the “why” that…

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FIRST UNIVERSALIST CHURCH

September 8, 2020
ADMINISTRATOR
Commercial, Rocky Mountain PBS, Video Stories
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First Universalist Church, Denver, Colorado | This community put their ‘why’ into action by honoring one of the central tenets of their faith —“respect the interdependent web of all existence” — with a large-scale renovation of their existing building. Using recycled and repurposed materials, spray-foam insulation, solar panels, and a geothermal heat system, the new worship sanctuary and event space were constructed to operate entirely on clean, renewable energy — with zero greenhouse gas emissions. Jessica Montgomerie, a staff member…

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Paul Kriescher, Executive Producer/Host
303.525.1158 | PaulK@heartofabuilding.com

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