Luxury living in a land of abundant wildlife and valleys, just 85 miles north of the bustle of Manhattan? It seems too good to be true, until you hear of Silo Ridge, a sustainable residential and resort development incorporated in Amenia, a sleepy hamlet of 4,000 in Northeast Dutchess County’s Harlem Valley.

Touted as a “healthy-living lifestyle” community and resort, Silo Ridge is essentially the first of its kind to integrate sustainable expansion in a natural environment in the New York metropolitan area. Planned by Millbrook Ventures, LLC, the development firm created by Stephen Garofalo in 2000 to develop a resort and residential neighborhood on the existing 670-acre golf course, Silo Ridge will include a 300-unit hotel and four residential areas consisting of 338 townhome and golf villa condos, vineyard cottages, and 41 single-family homes to be built in three phases.    

“We’ve been pretty consistent to the vision, of creating a little village with a hotel, the golf clubhouse, maybe a few little shops and buildings close together like you’d find in a New England village, around a green. And then neighborhoods stretching out, shall we say, extending like fingers into the more open country,” says Robert A.M. Stern, the lead architect on the project. “And that’s been the idea all along.”

Maintaining 80 percent open space, nearly 537 acres, ensures that the development will be of relatively low impact to the surrounding environment. Approximately 64 percent of the development’s units are within a quarter mile of the resort core and less than 6 percent of the development will be impervious road surface. Developers hope some of the storm water runoff from these surfaces will be recycled into potable water for the resort and golf course. Millbrook Ventures will also seek evaluation from New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and will then move forward in planning for energy efficient heating and lighting. NYSERDA, according to Millbrook Ventures Vice President of Construction Mike Dignacco, will evaluate Silo Ridge’s resources and topography and will then create the optimum energy plan for Silo Ridge.

“I think the whole process has worked very well. Environmentally, we’ve brought the town to a whole other level,” says Bill Flood, Town of Amenia planning board chairman. “We’ve set the bar very high at this point.”

For now, Silo Ridge, having already gained approval of its master development plan through the special use permit process, awaits site plan and subdivision approval that developers and town board members hope will come before the projected construction start date of spring 2010. It is hoped that by 2012, phase one—the hotel, golf course, retail space, spa, and several homes—will be completed.

Silo Ridge is a unique development that Stern says speaks to travelers in the area and local residents. Stern, who has a broad knowledge and deep respect for the area, is designing the resort and residential neighborhood to blend with the natural landscape. It will be “visually suitable” and “fundamentally green,” he says. “This will fit into the way people live and the way people see their visual landscape.”

Finding the perfect fit between environment and architecture has always been important to the design. “The buildings belong in that rural-esque vernacular,” with gable roofs and New England features, Stern says. “The colors will be grays and whites and browns that fit into nature. The ridges and valleys have been studied very carefully so that the buildings are placed in a sympathetic relationship to them.” The development will not be an eyesore to those in the area, but will, as Stern says, add a soothing “farm complex” dimension.

The concept for Silo Ridge, it seems, is one of responsible luxury, where design and extravagance never supersede sustainable living. All homes on site will be Energy-Star compliant and all commercial facilities are designed to be LEED Silver certified as well. “I think that, at the end of the day, these units are going to be far superior to something that would have been built even 5 or 10 years ago,” says Dignacco. With expected development costs ranging from $700 million to $800 million, saving money factors heavily into the equation. These units, Dignacco says, “make sense operationally too. If we do this right, the long term operational costs will be greatly reduced.”

Recycling on site, before construction even begins, also makes sense operationally. Construction teams at Silo Ridge hope to recycle spare materials from the existing golf clubhouse for use onsite and in the community. According to Dignacco, some kitchen equipment and furnishings have been sold or donated to local restaurants, and several groups, including a regional church organization, are interested in doors, light fixtures, plumbing fixtures, and interior finish materials and windows. In addition, all iron and non-iron based metals will be sold to a metal salvage and recycling company.

“We’re committed to a sophisticated green agenda,” says Stern of his design philosophy. “We will pursue and always pursue the most sophisticated, manageable, and affordable approach to sustainability that we can.” It is perhaps for this reason that Stern sees accessibility as one of Silo Ridge’s greenest features. Located near the Wassaic train station, the last stop on the Harlem Valley line out of Grand Central Station, Silo Ridge will have shuttle service to and from the station, eliminating surplus resident traffic and commuting difficulties for guests. “It will be easily accessible by a large number of people and extend the idea of sustainability beyond just the building to the relationship to the environment and the region,” says Stern.

The town of Amenia and Millbrook Ventures have seemingly walked hand-in-hand down the path to this development, incorporating luxury, simplicity, and alliance along the way. By reworking municipality zoning laws in the town’s comprehensive plan, Amenia has paved the way for Silo Ridge to meet and complete development requirements.

Public review processes during every step in the process have also allowed residents and local homeowners to directly influence aspects of Silo Ridge’s green development. “It’s a remarkable project that has, in an impressive way, worked to address the town’s concerns and meet, to the best of its abilities, the town’s expectations for future developments,” says Marc Molinaro, assemblyman of the 103rd district which covers Amenia. “It is a good example of what, when communities set their mind to it, can work in a cooperative way with the private sector of development.”

Collaboration has granted reward to not just developers, but Amenia too. The hamlet, plagued by the lack of a proper wastewater management system, has been offered the ability to tap into the treatment plant being built by Silo Ridge, once they gain a $10 million conveyance system to deliver the town’s raw sewage to the resort’s facility. The construction and maintenance of the wastewater treatment, built at no cost to Amenia, saves the town nearly $5 million, according to town supervisor Wayne Euvrard. Local industry is expected to boom as Silo Ridge will also provide nearly 2,000 jobs during construction and 1,200 full and part-time jobs in maintenance, lodging, and recreation once completed.

Perhaps the greatest accomplishment is knowing that continued partnership between town and developer, expansion and environment, will cultivate continued success.  As supervisor Euvrard says, “It is a win-win for everyone.”