When Deleloper Phil Sherburne Began Working with the bardessono family on a luxury hotel for their land in the Napa Valley, he was looking to create a modern experience. " I wanted to do a contemporary design; I am sick and tired of the Tuscan and French chateau copycats in valley. I felt it should be contemporary with out times and feel like it belongs in the valley. I wanted it to feel intimate in scale rather than impossing. and I wanted it to be a model of environmental design. something that other people could look at and learn from and emulate if possible." he explains.
 

"The way that I was going to make the contemporary design in the current Napa Valley enviroment was to ground it in the use of materials. I used rammed earth for some of our signage and for entry to the property to celebrate the soils of Napa Valley. I used stone and wood andn water as natural. dynamic materisal that would help ground it. I used steel that would rust. again to give it an evolutionary character." Sherurne continues.

The Bardessono hotel. which opens in Feb. 2009, is located on a six-acre property in Yountville. It features a 92-seat restaurant and bar and 62 guestrooms organized around courtyards named for local trees: magnolia, cypress. love andn birch. Built to meet the LEED platinum requiresments (the highest leve of certification). its green features range from photovoltaice solar collectors for electrical engergy and geoghermal wells fro heating and cooling to low water flow fixtures. dual flush toilets and waterless urinals.