By Emily Williams
The classic image of a subdivision is changing in Birmingham.
With many Over the Mountain cities lacking the space for sprawling subdivisions, builders such as Mike Wedgworth, president of Wedgworth Companies, and his team are adapting and hunting for interesting spaces to create smaller, custom communities and villages.
One of his current projects, Viridian, is nearing the finish line. The community, which is off Tyler Road in Vestavia Hills, includes 20 homes, only two of which remain unoccupied. Both available homes will be included in the Greater Birmingham Association of Home Builders’ 2017 Parade of Homes.
Viridian has been in the works since 2008, but with the recession weighing down the real estate market, Wedgworth took its time with the project, waiting for the market to begin its rebound.
Wedgworth said the early days of a neighborhood development project are his favorite.
“I love to look at the piece of land and see what it could be,” Wedgworth said.
Conceptualizing the development is much like putting together a puzzle, he said. Instead of using the surrounding buildings as a perimeter for Viridian, the team took advantage of the existing natural spaces.
Inside the entrance gates, the single-street community has a grassy hill free of homes on the left, incorporating a wall and the existing tree-line at the top to maintain privacy from neighboring homes. The right side has custom-designed houses that back up to a wooded green space.
“That space is protected, which means it will stay there. If someone cuts down one of those trees for whatever reason, they have to plant a new one. If a tree falls naturally, they don’t have to worry about replacing it,” said Patty Leeming, Wedgworth’s marketing director.
Leeming has a role throughout the building process, including working as a liaison between the company and the buyer.
Maintaining the protected green space instead of leveling it to create more room for building, Leeming said, didn’t make the job any easier, but having that wooded area as a buffer between Viridian and the neighboring community is priceless.
The Chatham
One of the homes featured on the Parade of Homes tour, Chatham, at 969 Viridian Way, is designed to focus on the green spaces outside.
Chatham, at 3,443 square feet, is suited for an older family or empty-nesters looking to downsize. A room just to the left of the entryway serves as a study or bedroom, with a full bath next-door.
“A lot of older homebuyers like to have a guest bedroom on the main floor in addition to the master bedroom,” Leeming said. “So, this space can be used as an extra bedroom, or it can be a study.”
Also located toward the front of the home is the two-car garage.
According to Leeming, the floor plan places the spaces with the lowest amount of traffic toward the front of the home, with the most used spaces toward the back of the home.
The majority of the main floor is devoted to an open living space that includes a kitchen with a large marble island that has bar-style seating, a breakfast nook and a large living space with vaulted ceilings. The master bedroom also sits at the back of the home.
Whether through window panes or porch, the back of the house capitalizes on the view of the protected green space. Located near the largest point of the wooded area, the home sits on a hilltop and overlooks a small creek and foliage, with no other houses in sight.
An outdoor living space includes a large screened-in porch and an adjacent open porch that can accommodate an outdoor grilling area.
Project manager Patrick Gilbert said his favorite part of the building process has been seeing each house transform from an image to reality.
“We wanted to produce a product that is designed uniquely to fit the land, as opposed to making the land fit the design,” Gilbert said.
Energy Efficiency
Like all homes in the neighborhood, Chatham is Energy Star-certified and features the latest concepts in energy-efficient green homebuilding.
“When a buyer thinks about energy efficiency, they usually just think about appliances, LED lighting and things like that, which this has, but there is also a lot more,” Leeming said.
Much of what makes the home green is in the unseen building details. The process of getting Energy Star certification is complex, but Wedgworth said that, simply stated, it certifies a home is “tight.”
A “tight” house doesn’t leave much room for air to leak out, so before a home can be Energy Star certified, one of the big tests assesses the percentage of air that leaks out of the home and out of the heating and cooling systems.
There are three things that a homeowner will notice in an Energy Star-certified home, according to Wedgworth.
“First, there are lower utility bills,” he said. “In a home of this size we estimate that the amount the owner will pay on power and gas combined is somewhere between $2,400 to $3,000 a year.”
Second, the quality of the air in the home is cleaner. A “tight” home yields less opportunity for unfiltered air to enter the home, Wedgworth said.
The third noticeable benefit is increased comfort; it’s quieter and the air temperature is more consistent throughout the home.
“I’ve had some residents tell me that, while we’ve been doing construction work, they can hardly hear the noise,” he said.
Being in the business of modern building, Wedgworth admitted that he deals with a lot of “house-envy” when he goes back to his own home. As of late, he’s been wishing his own home was “tighter” so he could relax in the quietness while enjoying a lower power bill.
Community Showcased
In addition to showcasing homes, GBAHB has put a spotlight on Viridian as a community.
With the natural green space limiting the workable landscape, Wedgworth was able to fit in two small “pocket parks” among the homes to provide extra outdoor space for residents.
Another big plus for residents was space for guest parking.
“A big issue people have with smaller communities like this is that there is nowhere for their guests to park if they have a group of people over,” Wedgworth said.
Each home has garage space and driveway space, but an added 22 parking spots along the street were included to accommodate an influx of visitors.
Having had homes on the tour in previous years, Wedgworth expects this year’s tour to bring more attention to his company.
“This will give us a lot more exposure to the general public,” he said. “We’ll get a chance to meet people and show them what our company is all about and what we can deliver, which is upscale, custom homes.”
In addition to Viridian, Wedgworth Companies built Glen Manor, a subdivision in Vestavia Hills off Rocky Ridge Road, and Village Place, a Mountain Brook community off of Montclair Road.
With Viridian nearly complete, the company’s next project will be developing seven lots at Altadena Park, neighboring the site of the future park that the city of Vestavia Hills is planning to develop.
For more information on Wedgworth Companies, visit wedgworth.net.
