For the Birds: A Healthy Home in New Mexico

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Bonnie’s home consists of three structures: The main house is 2,325 square feet and includes two bedrooms and two baths. A 460-square-foot guest house and a detached garage are both connected to the main house via a timberframed breezeway, which also defines an entry courtyard and aviary. Photos by Daniel Nadelbach

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The road to Bonnie McGowan’s home offers a few clues about the clay-straw, nature-inspired home at its end.  After passing through Pecos, New Mexico, a sleepy village nestled within the high desert wilderness, and past a few farmsteads, the forest service road climbs through a dense forest. A few miles up, a birdhouse perched on a gate pole and a carved street sign for Silver Feather Trail mark the entrance to the Birds of a Feather community, the gay and lesbian retirement community Bonnie founded in 2006.

Bonnie conceived of the community more than 15 years ago, then spent three years finding the perfect site: 157 acres of secluded, peaceful forest and meadow. After spending another five years planning the community, in 2006 Bonnie built the community flagship—her own home.

Bonnie was determined to build a home that would enhance the beautifully wild site she’d worked so long to find. “I wanted my home to feel like it grew out of this landscape,” she says.

Bonnie was also committed to creating a healthy home for her two parrots, which are more sensitive to chemical exposure and unnatural environments than humans. She asked our company, EcoNest, to design and build one of the clay-straw homes we specialize in.

A little birdy told me

Parrots are extremely sensitive to their environment, so their needs drove many health- and eco-friendly design choices. From foundation to rooftop, Bonnie’s home meets protocols for smoke-free and pesticide-free builders, using additive-free concrete and low-VOC glues, sealants and finishes; eliminating asphalt and formaldehyde; employing low-electromagnetic-field wiring; and enhancing the home’s peacefulness with an isolated mechanical room.

In some cases, the parrots also directed the home’s interior design.  For example, parrots find manmade, repetitive patterns disturbing, so their corner is finished in natural green slates and plaster. Echo, a serious 15-year-old, and Oliver, a mischievous 6-year-old, like to be in the center of activity, so we designed an easy-to-clean nook in a prominent kitchen corner for their cages, with direct access to an outdoor aviary and views to the living room and dining room beyond. We blocked most of the exterior views from their cage area with patterned glass block so the sight of raptors won’t cause panic.

Flocking together

Bonnie envisioned Birds of a Feather as a peaceful, serene retreat where residents could live in harmony with one another and nature. Community building was among the most important elements of Bonnie’s project. My husband and business partner, Robert Laporte, led a five-day workshop during which Bonnie, her friends and her future community members built her home’s walls, using local clay and straw. Handcrafted timber frames of local white fir support the home’s central core and guest house. The home also features the work of talented local artisans, including plasterers, tile setters, and custom cabinet and door makers. Their work complements Bonnie’s collection of art by local painters, weavers and woodcarvers.

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