World Famous Architect Jim Satzinger on Bend, Oregon Home Design
Karen Malanga: Hi, this is Karen Malanga with another edition of House Talk.
Today, I’m really excited to welcome Jim Satzinger. Jim and I go way back all the way to high school. He recently was living in Santa Fe for years. He’s a world famous architect from Santa Fe. And Kristen, my daughter and I, helped him find a lovely home for both he and his wife here in downtown Bend.
So Jim, welcome to the program.
Jim Satzinger: Thank you, Karen. I want to thank you and Kristen and Nest for all the work you did for my wife and I. We really love our house.
Karen: I’m so glad to hear that. And we’re so excited to have you here. Jim’s been very excited about architecture, or perhaps even the lack of architecture here in Central Oregon. Would you like to speak to that, Jim?
Jim: Well, it’s always difficult when you’re in the business, and particularly as particular as I am—particularly as particular as I am, how is that—
Karen: That’s great.
Jim: —to find really well-designed buildings and homes. And we have seen some. And there are some very nice newer homes being done here. There’s a sort of a modern style that’s emerging in Bend. At its best, it’s great; and at its worst, it’s not so great. But that’s the case everywhere.
Karen: Yeah. Well, I see that you brought in a book on Desert Rain. That happens to be the home of one of my clients. It’s a very special home here in Bend. Is that intriguing to you?
Jim: Well, I’ve been involved in the sustainable building movement probably for the last 10 to 15 years. And the last few houses that I’ve designed have been basically requiring no electricity because of the solar systems that we’ve put on the homes.
And I’m very, very interested in furthering what started out as the 2030 movement, which in Santa Fe, New Mexico, an architect named Ed Mazria, kind of following Al Gore’s lead, challenged the building community to make buildings energy independent by 2030.
You see, the buildings that we live in and work in and are educated in and all of our stores consume about 50% of the energy in the country. And so the building community of architects and contractors have the ability to completely change our energy use by designing and building energy efficient structures.
And this is a very, very, very important thing for the world.
Karen: I agree with that. Now I have a question for you. Santa Fe is one thing. I mean, you do get snow there, but do you get snow like you do here in Bend. And does that effect the solar type energy that you’re speaking to?
Jim: Well, Bend doesn’t have as much sun as Santa Fe, New Mexico. Santa Fe is probably one of the sunniest places in the country. Santa Fe does demonstrate though that you can have a cold climate and you can still have solar collection.
I would say Bend is probably average. So it’s probably a good place to try these strategies because most places where we live and work don’t have sun for 300 days a year. Even though we claim it in Bend, maybe the sun peeks out, and they count it as a day. I would say it’s probably sunny half the time here.
So, I’m looking forward to trying some of my ideas in this area as they did at the Desert Rain house and as a lot of other architects and builders are doing here.
Karen: I’m excited to see what project you’re going to build. That would be very cool.
You did share with me that you have become a licensed architect here in the state of Oregon. I don’t know how you did that that fast, but you really moved forward quickly.
Jim: Well, I was able to get a license in Oregon because I have an NCARB certificate which is the national architecture certificate that’s available to us with study and testing. So, I’m able to practice in any of the 50 states, territories of the US, provinces of Canada, Australia, or New Zealand with my NCARB certificate.
Karen: So Jim, if someone wanted to reach you and wanted to build a home similar to Desert Rain, how do they find you? Is that under Satzinger Design? How would they find you?
Jim: Well, my website is SatzingerDesign.com, and it needs some work. And actually, my next door neighbor has proposed that we do a new website. And I’m really semi-retired; it’s probably the truth. But I have a lot of creativity left in me. I have a lot of energy left in me. I’m really enjoying using that energy up in the mountains here because the trail systems are fantastic.
Karen: Well, thank you for being here today, Jim. It’s great to see you as always.
Jim: Thank you.
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