The Kennedys are back in power—this time, using their home as a tool for innovation, agitation, and education.

Forced from their farmhouse by black mold that was destroying their children’s health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Mary Richardson Kennedy rebuilt on the same Westchester County property, creating a classically-inspired, high-performance home using the latest green technologies. They’re sharing their experience and their home to educate and inspire the design and building trade, community members, and the public.

The mission of the “Kennedy Green House”—the name given to the project and the title of a book by the interior designer—is to showcase the most energy-efficient and sustainable products, renewable energy systems, and recycling methods in a comfortable environment.

The rebuilt home “feels like a traditional house even though it has totally, totally, totally cutting-edge appliances, fixtures, and technology,” Mary says. “For classicists and people who want traditional architecture, it’s important for them to know that it’s possible to achieve that aesthetically, that they’re not going to be living in a machine, that it doesn’t have to look like some space-age contraption.”

The year-long project, executed by a team of local professionals and overseen by Mary, herself an architect with experience in historic renovation, is expected to earn LEED Silver certification.

The concept for this show house, with donated products and services worth upwards of $1.3 million, came from EcoManor in Atlanta, created by CNN founder Ted Turner’s daughter and her husband, Laura and Rutherford Seydel, ardent environmentalists. EcoManor, which serves as an educational tool as well as a residence, is credited with inspiring Arthur Blank to launch Home Depot’s green initiatives, Mary relates.

“We wanted to make the house the most modern and comfortable and energy efficient as possible,” Mary says, adding, “We didn’t embark on this by choice—it was a sick house.”

The circa-1920 farmhouse, situated on 12 acres bordering a 30-acre lake, was originally part of a larger summer estate owned by Charles Scribner, the publisher. Never insulated, the house was clad in aluminum siding in the 1950s, creating the perfect environment for a black mold infestation that took over one summer while the family was away. The Kennedys fought the black mold for three years, but it kept growing back.

“I’ve lived here for 25 years and the mold was making my kids sick,” Bobby explains. “In [son] Connor’s first three years, he was hospitalized nine times; we made 29 trips to the emergency room.” Three of the children were left with asthma. The only feasible solution was to tear down and rebuild.

With a team of architects, a LEED consultant, LEED builder, and input from friend and neighbor Allan Shope, a carbon-neutral architect, the Kennedys built a new 7-bedroom home, using the latest in renewable energy. There’s shallow-well geothermal heating and cooling, solar-thermal hot water with a backup high-efficiency propane boiler, and solar shingles on the roof that are the first of their kind installed in the United States. Passive solar gain is maximized and 16 Solatubes bring natural daylight into hallways, closets, and other spaces.

The Kennedys can now generate 10 megawatts of electricity. During the winter storms of 2010, which cut electricity to more than 150,000 New York homes, the Kennedys harbored three families. “Every home in America should be a power plant and we were a case in point,” Mary says.

Further reducing the carbon footprint are superior insulation, water-saving Kohler fixtures, LED, fiber-optic, and fluorescent lighting; plus high-efficiency Electrolux appliances in the kitchen and in a basement kitchenette.

But cutting-edge technology also meets sustainable, long-lasting, and reused materials in the Kennedy Green House, which could serve as a case study in recycling and salvaging. Every piece of the old house was either used to build the new house or sent to Green Demolitions, a nonprofit recycler and reseller of building materials and products. The foundation was crushed and used as gravel; all the wood and doors were reused. “There wasn’t a single nail that wasn’t recycled,” Bobby said. “We got a tax deduction on the house and it ended up being a great deal for us.”

Nearly every slab of wood was restored by master craftsman John Yurema of Detroit to create custom floors in the dining room, living room, and Bobby’s study; all the floors were reclaimed or made from certified renewable forests; the service hall, mudroom, and main laundry room floors are made from the butt ends of raw timber for durability. The slate roof was reclaimed from the former Wassaic mental institution that sat on upstate property now owned by Shope.

“We didn’t do our salvaging anonymously,” Mary says, showing off the white Carrara marble countertop in the kitchenette reclaimed from an 895 Park Avenue demolition. Other finds include the 50 natural stone ‘saddles’ lined up neatly to tile a powder room, headboards made from Vermont barn boards, and some of the flagstone outside donated by neighbors. “It was a scavenger hunt; I was running around salvaging stuff. One of my missions is to be sure nothing goes to waste. If I come across something I can’t put to use that I don’t want to see going to a landfill, I call Steve [Feldman, founder] of Green Demolitions,” Mary says.

To ensure the healthiest air quality, the Kennedys required no-VOC paints and finishes and use only green cleaning products. Where there are carpets, they’re made from pure New Zealand wool by Karastan, Mary points out.

Accessibility was another high priority for the Kennedys. Design elements that make the home inviting for all ages and abilities include a rear entrance ramp, an elevator, light switches at the same height as ergonomic door knobs, hidden railings, curbless showers, and closet storage suitable for a wheelchair user.

“We’re hoping to use it continually as a teaching tool,” Bobby says. “To make our house open for architects, students, for people who are trying to build green. To open the house to them so they can come here and see what works and doesn’t work. There’s already been hundreds through here—and there are people who have changed their building designs [as a result].”

“Hopefully a lot of good things will come of it, in terms of to-the-trade,” Mary adds. “We’re using it to talk to my peers in the design world....My intention is to work with four organizations: the AIA, ASID, USGBC, and Institute for Classical Architecture—the fourth one I feel particularly strong about. I always say about my husband that even though he’s politically liberal, aesthetically he is to the right of Prince Charles. He’s a traditionalist of the first order.”

The Kennedys’ historic antecedents are felt in their home’s aesthetics. Historical elements and references abound in such details as crown molding, French doors, graceful columns, custom mantels, built-in bookshelves, and numerous priceless heirlooms. In the reclaimed brick pediments facing the back yard, one can discern the United Farm Workers of America eagle emblem—it was the children’s idea, as they had spent time with the union and the plight of farmers is a favorite cause, Bobby explains.

Civil-War era American flags, a World War I shield, and matching kerchiefs from the 1904 election hang in the entryway, while the upstairs hallway is lined with framed letters and signatures from every American president (except Grover Cleveland, who “got lost in the move,” Bobby muses). Museum-quality fiber-optic lighting that won’t harm the historical documents supplements Solatubes that bring in natural daylight.

The low-flow toilet in the powder room resembles the hatbox commode Mary Todd Lincoln is said to have traveled with on Abraham Lincoln’s campaign trail. “That’s my gesture to my husband, as an American historian,” Mary says.

Mary insisted on making the space livable for the family and their friends. “This is our home and not an art gallery. I wanted nothing to be so precious it couldn’t be retouched.” In fact, she said many things “have been broken and put back together—including a dining room chair that was the casualty of a hockey game in the dining room. A fireplace makes a great hockey goal!

“The children ground us. They’re a constant reminder of what’s important in life and what we’re really doing this for. It’s not for accolades. We want to leave a better world than the world we were given,” Mary says.

Resource List

Architects

Patrick Croke (exterior and interior details)

(914) 234-6093; pmcarchitect.com

Brooks Washburn (exterior and mechanicals)

(315) 268-1338; brookswashburnarchitect.com

Builder

Blansfield Builders; Jim Blansfield

(203) 948-6121; blansfieldbuilders.com