One-on-One

One-on-One with Evan Kinsley

PRESIDENT OF SPIEGEL-KINSLEY CONSTRUCTION

BY MEGAN GLEASON JOURNAL BUSINESS EDITOR

Evan Kinsley has always liked the intimacy of building homes, creating something out of nothing designed uniquely for one person.

Now, as president of Spiegel-Kinsley Construction, he specializes in building custom, luxury homes in Placitas that he says are good for the environment and energy efficient.

He got his start in the building industry making cabinets for his uncle in Colorado. Since then, he’s gone through full home remodels, owned a furniture company and built roller coasters for amusement parks.

Kinsley’s wife helped draw him to New Mexico, where he helped build out a handful of M’tucci’s restaurants, the chain his wife’s family started. He said that gave him a lay of the land, so he bought some land and started Spiegel-Kinsley.

Spiegel-Kinsley is building custom, net-zero homes. What does that mean?

The premise behind a net zero-home is simple. It is a home that produces more energy than it consumes. There’s a lot of different ways to do that. It’s a balance between how energy efficient a home is and how much solar you need to put on. Technically, you can make any home a net-zero home, even if it was built in the 1800s, by adding a lot of solar panels. The approach that I take is starting with the building envelope and trying to create an airtight, high-performance building envelope — the shell of the home. Then we’ve got a really good starting point of adding a little bit of solar. Ideally what you want is an all-electric home, so anything that’s running in that home, in terms of heating, cooling, cooking, everything, is working off electricity. We provide enough solar, typically about a 10-kilowatt system on the roof. We’re averaging about 127% production versus consumption. So we have that extra (energy) where you never receive an energy bill for the life of the home.

And a lot of these homes are in Placitas. Why Placitas?

I love Placitas. I think it’s a beautiful area to build. There is less and less land available, but at the time that we started this company, there were quite a few lots that were available to buy and try this theory out. We’re really focusing on more luxury homes. And with that, people want land and they want gorgeous views, and it’s just the perfect setting to build high-performance, net-zero homes.

The homes maintain traditional New Mexico architectural styles. Can you paint a picture of what that looks like and what it entails?

I call it Pueblo contemporary. So we’re rounding corners. We’re doing singlestory, multiple elevation changes on the exterior of the home. We’re doing wood beams on the interior — not typically your traditional round vigas, but large, rectangular wood beams. I like to put wood floors in all of my homes. We bullnose all the interior corners and soften all the interior corners. We’ll do kiva fireplaces and corners, kind of mixing that contemporary feel of a home with those traditional architecture (styles) of what you think of when you think of a New Mexican or a Pueblo-style home.

Your company also did Teddy Roe’s speakeasy in Nob Hill. Can you tell

More on Evan Kinsley

THE BASICS: Evan Kinsley, 37, from Granville, Ohio; wife, Suzanne Spiegel; two dogs, Bridgette and Beau, American pit bull terriers; studied fine woodworking, Ohio University, Red Rocks Community College.

POSITIONS: President, Spiegel-Kinsley Construction LLC; president: ZipZag Rides USA; owner, Sustainable Arbor Works LLC.

me about that project?

That was a fun project. We were expanding M’tucci’s at the time and took over the old Kelly’s on Central. I helped demo that old location and helped with the vision and the design when we were taking over that building. In the back corner of the restaurant, there was a small, almost like an oversized closet, and it was used for brewery equipment. ... We had played with this idea of the speakeasy for many years, and the partners and the founders and myself are walking through, and (one of us) said, “This could work.” Myself and an interior designer, Carrie Momeni from Colorado, we just brainstormed and put a vision together. I built that about two years ago now.

What do you find unique about homebuilding in New Mexico?

It’s different. It’s definitely different than homebuilding in Colorado, where you have basements and, typically, second stories. Single-story, slab-ongrade homes is pretty unique for me as a builder; for people that have been building in New Mexico for many years, it’s the standard. But trying to redefine those spaces and and re-look at how we design homes. I do something a little bit different. I typically (use) a SIPs wall system — a structural insulated wall panel system — instead of a traditional frame to really help with that thermal bridging that happens with studs and walls and air gaps and things like that. So that was a unique challenge for me as a builder.

I’ve built an SIP in Colorado and (am) now building the SIPs in New Mexico on a slab-on-grade system with architects, engineers and designers that aren’t typically doing this. I’m one of the only builders building this way and figuring out that process together with my architects and my engineers, and solving these unique challenges of: How do we build this style of high-performance home in New Mexico, where not a lot of people are doing it? That’s the biggest challenge that I had getting going was really pushing that envelope, and also maintaining viewpoints of the Sandia Mountains or the city lights — that whole design aspect of each house that I build is different and unique, but (still) achieving the aesthetic of New Mexico, the feel of New Mexico, with a high-performing home.

Did you always envision yourself in this industry?

Yeah, I think so. The first thing that I really built out, other than my home projects with my dad growing up, was a gear shop. I was a big climber growing up, and... we built a climbing gym and remodeled this space for this new gear shop that I worked at in college. And I was tasked with building our front desk ... and I remember going back to that college town, and it was a different shop — the gear shop had closed down, but they had kept that desk that I built. ... I think the hook for me was seeing something that you build with your hands that lasts a long time.

What are you doing when you’re not homebuilding?

I like my time on the river. My wife and I have a raft. I like fly fishing and camping on the river, and, honestly, getting out of cellphone service because this industry is really demanding, especially building custom homes. The phone never stops ringing. So to get away, get into nature, and fly fish and camp and be on the river is what I like to do.

Any pet peeves?

My biggest one is just the fluctuation in market, whether it be tariffs, whether it be material shortages or workforce shortages. It’s a big challenge. You can build a house six months ago for this cost and build a very similar house in a very similar place for a different cost. And trying to maintain expectations with clients, it’s an ever-evolving, everchanging space. That’s challenging.

It’s another added thing to take care of and manage, on top of just trying to build a really high-quality product. We’ve seen that over the last four or five years with COVID, with changes in the government, and changes in taxes and changes in materials. That’s my pet peeve — is it’s tough to know what something is going to cost and be able to stick with that.

Are there any ongoing or future projects you’re particularly excited about?

I’m excited about every home that I build. So right now, we’ve got four customs that I’m working on this year. Just broke ground on two spec homes and one custom. ... Next year, we’ve got two more spec homes that are set to break ground, and I’m working on seven homes out there in Santa Fe in the highsummit area, across from Ten Thousand Waves Spa. I’m trying to build a sevenhome, small subdivision that is high performance and net zero and a little bit different than what’s typically built up there.

Megan Gleason is a business editor for the Albuquerque Journal. She also covers energy, utilities and government. You can reach her at mgleason@abqjournal.com.