On Monday, the long process to turn a four-acre family home and vineyard into what is being called “America’s greenest hotel” will finally come to an end. That’s when Bardessono, a 62-room hotel, 92-seat restaurant and spa will open in downtown Yountville.

That process has taken 11 years.

Earlier this month, Seattle developer Phil Sherburne talked about the project, its environmental features and the care he has taken to ensure its “footprint” is small and fits into the Yountville site.

Eleven years ago, Steve Bardessono and his brother, Pete, who was Yountville’s public works director for 30 years, first began their efforts to turn their family vineyard and home into a commercial hotel. They went “shopping” for a developer.

Sherburne said he was one of 12 developers who were considered, but part of the reason he was selected is because he understands the public’s interest in making sure the project fits in with Yountville. The Bardessonos, too, were concerned about the impact a commercial development would have on the town’s rural character.

Sherburne had been a city planner in Seattle for many years and after he left that position, he developed two high quality, notable projects in the Seattle area: the 600-acre Decatur Island project in the San Juan Islands and 86-room Willow Lodge near Seattle. Sherburne said he was chosen to develop the property based on those developments.

The Bardessonos own the land and Sherburne’s 100-year lease of the property began in October 2005. Actual construction has taken the past two years.

The developer said the finished project will be “very environmentally responsible” and will be a development model others can follow. He expects the hotel will be awarded the platinum rating from the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System.

Even though the hotel is in Yountville, there’s a St. Helena connection, too.

Sherburne spotted a big wooden sculpture in a downtown art gallery, looked at it and asked who did it — because he had been looking for a way for the hotel to celebrate the woods of California. It took him several weeks to find the sculptor, Evan Shively, of Arborica in West Marin.

 “I drove out there,” says Sherburne, “and all the logs were stacked up everywhere. Evan took me into the warehouse and showed me the walnut, bay laurel and the cypress and that began our long relationship.”

Shively runs a sawmill in West Marin and supplied Sherburne with about 100,000 square feet of salvaged wood for the project. The list is extensive:

• 80,000 square feet of Monterey cypress, used for siding

• 11,000 square feet of orchard walnut for flooring

• 2,800 square feet of redwood recycled from wine tanks

• 88 orchard walnut doors

• 62 California bay laurel desks and

• Eight doors made from redwood.

Additionally, there are dining tables and a bar made from walnut, a cypress harvest table that is 18 feet long and two desks, one coffee table and a hostess stand made from elm. Two screens for the bar are made from eucalyptus.

Environmental features

Bardessono has many environmental and sustainable features, all designed to lessen its impact and beautify the property. They include:

• Eighty-two 300-foot deep geothermal wells to heat and cool guests’ rooms and to provide hot water;

• 940 solar panels on the buildings’ flat roofs, hidden from view by parapets, that produce 200 KW of power;

• Rammed earth walls and 100-year-old olive trees;

• Paving stones and sand for the entrance road, to allow water to seep into the soil, and valet parking, which will allow guests to walk throughout the property;

• Exterior Venetian blinds, automatically controlled to let the sun and heat in early in the day and out later in the day;

• Dual-pane glass, designed to take advantage of natural light;

• Fluorescent bulbs and light-emitting diodes. Everything electric in the rooms are on motion-detectors that shut them off when a guest leaves. When they return and put their key in the door, the lights, television go back on;

• Dual-flush toilets, low-flow fixtures and water filtration, which takes the place of bottled water;

• Drought-resistant landscaping and underground emitters for outdoor watering;

• Re-use and treatment of gray and black water for irrigation through Yountville’s water system; and

• Organically-sourced linens and cleaning supplies.

Bardessono, hotel, restaurant and spa

6526 Yount St., Yountville

Land owners: The Steve and Pete Bardessono families

Developer: Phil Sherburne

Architect: Ron Mitchell

Contractor: Cello-Maudru Construction

Hotel Management Group: MTM Luxury Lodging

General manager: Roger Young

Guest Experiences director: Cristina Salas-Porras

Executive chef: Sean O’Toole

Reservations: (707) 204-6000 or www.Bardessono.com

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