The Good Guys

As daunting as its structural requirements, though, the project carried an equally impressive set of mechanical specs. All of the rain that falls on the house and site drains into underground storage tanks—24,000 gallons’ worth—that feed an extensive landscape irrigation system. An array of geothermal heat pumps, fed by 16 400-foot wells, heats and cools the house, warms the outdoor pool, and melts snow from the driveway and walks. The driveway loop is engineered to run in reverse in the summer, harvesting the solar energy collected by the asphalt paving. Natural gas boilers provide backup heat for the coldest winter days. Rooftop photovoltaic panels offset some of the house’s electrical load and, along with a roomful of storage batteries, can support essential loads during an extended power outage. Assuming, that is, that natural gas service to the primary backup generator is interrupted and that the secondary backup, a diesel generator, runs its fuel tank dry. Muse gave his clients a contractor list with a single name on it: Horizon. “Putting that out to bid? No. I told them that I only know one builder who can build this. I’ve never turned to them and asked, ‘Can you build this?’ and have them say, ‘It can’t be done.’”

On a tour of the house, Fritz marches briskly from room to room, rattling off a list of additional features. “There were five different millwork shops involved in this house,” he says. “See those skylights up there? They have their own air conditioning system between the laylights and the skylights so we don’t overburden the room system.” Every room has a small, ceiling-mounted duct that channels air to a central sensing unit that can be configured to detect smoke, carbon monoxide, VOCs, and virtually any other pollutant one can name. “This is the second home in the country that has it,” he says. To guard against a more prosaic hazard, floor vents in the guest bathrooms are rigged to double as overflow drains (a plumbing drain with a backflow preventer is grafted onto the HVAC duct below the floor).

This two-story living room addition is the centerpiece of a recent remodel of an urban house built in the 1920s. The original building had Asian references and hints of early Prairie style, and the new work extends and amplifies both influences. The floors and wood trim are Brazilian cherry. Custom-molded concrete blocks make up the masonry columns. Fifteen skylights provide solariumlike illumination. Architect: Muse Architects, Bethesda, Md.; Photo: Alan Karchmer. With two finished levels entirely below grade, foundation drainage and waterproofing were of the utmost importance, and it’s here that Fritz is most in his element. “George Fritz is a fanatic about preventing water infiltration,” says project architect John Thorp. “I think he made it a personal mission to take care of that.” The foundation walls are protected on the outside with waterproofing, a continuous drainage plane, and a footing drain. A second drainage plane and footing drain lines the interior of the foundation, behind the finish surfaces. Water from the footing drains runs to interior sumps, from which it’s pumped to the water-recovery system for irrigation. “We have eight sump pumps,” Fritz says, which are deployed in redundant pairs with battery backup power and an alarm system to alert the owners in case of malfunction. “And then we monitor everything with the flow of the sump pumps.”

If that sounds as if Fritz himself were planning to man the control room and watch the dials, the impression is not far from the truth. Horizon’s motto is “Extreme craftsmanship. Exceptional service,” but for Fritz, commitment to the project—doing what is right for the house—trumps everything else. Muse tells the story of one client who, taken aback at the intensity of Fritz’s passion for his work, told the architect, “You know, I just want someone to build my house.”