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 Local Homes Earn National Recognition Pair of Homes win ICF Builder Awards This local custom home, which already gained considerable fame as the “People Choice” in last year’s home show, has now earned widespread recognition in the U.S. and Canada. It was recently recognized as one of the three best custom homes built with insulating concrete forms. The 2006 ICF Builder Awards, sponsored by Cosella Dorken and ICF Builder Magazine, are given annually to projects that demonstrate outstanding innovation, quality, and craftsmanship in insulating concrete forms construction. “It’s a great home showcasing how a concrete home can be just as attractive or even more attractive than a conventionally built home,” says one judge. “A very impressive home! Not only in sheer size but also in the attention to detail both inside and out,” says another. “The home is a masterpiece! The interior and exterior design harmonize and are both executed to the highest of standards,” said the third. Located in Greenwood, just outside Bemidji, Minn., the three-story home looks much smaller than its actual 10,000 sq. ft. Costing $4.9 million to construct, the home is built on a sloping lot overlooking St. Alban’s Bay on Lake Minnetonka. The rear of the house has nearly floor-to-ceiling windows in every room to accommodate the view. On the interior, the home boasts custom cherry cabinetry throughout, floors of Brazilian cherry, an indoor basketball court and elevator. Insulating concrete forms are a stay-in-place concrete forming system. Hollow foam blocks are stacked to form the exterior walls, and then filled with steel reinforced concrete. The resulting structure reduces energy bills by up to 70 percent, blocks exterior noise, and can withstand virtually any natural disaster. ICF construction is rapidly gaining popularity, growing at about 25% annually. The home was finished in March of 2006, and the current owners already are enjoying the benefits of their ICF home. They estimate their heating bills to be about 20 percent of what they’d be in a traditional stick-frame house with conventional forced air, thanks to ICF walls and radiant floor heat. With a popular—and noisy—lake literally in their backyard, they also appreciate how the foam and concrete walls eliminate the roar of the motorboats, vacationers, and jet skis. Because of the sloping lot, it could have been a challenging build. “The land had to be excavated, completely re-landscaped, and backfilled almost a story high to accommodate the design of the home,” says Connie Chisolm of Reward Wall Systems, which provided the ICFs for the project. She credits the strength and insulating qualities of the ICF walls as a major reason for this project’s success. Most of the exterior shell was stacked and poured in November and December—a time when most concrete work in northern Minnesota comes to a standstill. But because ICF hold heat so well, contractors were able to easily place the concrete and keep the construction on schedule. The builder, Vogue Homes, has used ICFs exclusively for nearly seven years now, saying it virtually eliminates callback for nail pops, cracked stucco, and mold. It allows them to build on challenging lots—like this one—that other builders wouldn’t consider. The project earned 2nd Runner-up Custom Home in the 2006 ICF Builder Awards. Vogue Homes is the first contractor to win two ICF Builder Awards in a single year. Another project by Vogue Homes in Eagan earned 1st Runner-up in the custom home category as well. Photographs and profiles of all the winning projects can be viewed on the ICF Builder Awards website, www.builderawards.com. “The variety and scale of projects being built with ICFs is truly astounding,” said Clark Ricks, editor of ICF Builder magazine and organizer of the competition. “It’s time these outstanding projects received industry-wide recognition, and we feel privileged to take a leading role in that.” ####
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