When it comes to earth-friendly living, one of the first principles is to stay put. Don’t tear down an existing home and build back bigger, or find a natural habitat and replace it with a large new home. 

That’s the concept philanthropists Jim and Nancy Blair employed when they began strategizing ways to include an office at their residence. Having lived in the same house on a tree-filled mountainside in Fayetteville since the 1970s, Jim was predisposed to making the home accommodate his and Nancy’s additional office needs. With a goal of staying put, surrounded by the trees and wildlife he’d come to know over the decades spent on the site, he sought a way to sensitively add a new structure to the current setting.

Thinking green is nothing new to Jim, a major force behind Fayetteville’s Blair Library building, which garnered silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. Jim and Nancy sought the advice of architect Marlon Blackwell, FAIA, who designed a new 1,000-square-foot structure housing the additional spaces the couple needed and tucked it snuggly alongside their current home, minimizing its impact on the property. 

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