“We believe in creating Architecture as a form of fine art, where it thoughtfully embraces its site physically, ecologically and culturally with compelling content, form and materials. Modeled, chiseled and honed by digital sculptors, many Comet Studios projects represent explorations in content and form more typically found in the studios of fine artists and sculptors. Read John’s Resume:

In addition to the dimensions and qualities offered by other forms of fine art, architecture offers a 4th dimension of livability we experience as we move around and through buildings inside and out. This “stage set” quality of ever changing human drama embodied with dreams and experiences is perhaps the most unique and special quality architecture has to offer as an art form.

Considering ourselves “Dream Makers”, we strive to help our clients manifest their dreams and lifestyle goals. We believe that the Dreams which accompany all human actions should be nurtured by the places in which people live and work…”

JOHN EDMUND HALLEY is the president & CEO of Comet Studios, a dynamic consortium of creative professionals who share passion for the natural environment, sustainability and architectural excellence. With over thirty years of architectural design and development experience, Comet Studios specializes in environmentally conscious and sustainable community planning, new urbanism, architectural design and development for new construction and remodel projects.

Comet Studios’ environmentally conscious philosophy combines principles of Relocalization, new Urbanism and “green” building design with innovative, cost effective, and efficient renewable energy solutions that architecturally blend seamlessly with surrounding community and the natural environment. His demonstrated professional passion centers on working with visionary people and organizations who strive to achieve high levels of excellence where principles of sustainability and earth stewardship always prevail.

John also offers more than 40 years of high alpine mountain experience covering a broad spectrum of environmentally conscious alpine mountain architectural design, alpine mountain community planning, related real estate development, mountain home construction and many community volunteer efforts.

Prior to founding Comet Studios, John ran product development for the San Francisco office of Centex Homes, one of the largest housing developers in the United States. In this capacity, John hired and managed interdisciplinary teams of professionals for the full spectrum of real estate development; covering market research, market analysis, project programming, budget development, land acquisition, site planning, architectural design, landscape architecture, presentations & submittals needed for project approval, project engineering, construction document preparation, building permits, construction oversight, model home development, marketing, sales and analysis of project success after completion.

For the purpose of pursuing alpine mountain development projects, John founded DREAMTIME Design and Development LLC as a development company specializing in high alpine mountain resort and related residential projects. John’ runs land acquisition & product development for Dreamtime.

John Edmund Halley offers over 30 years of experience covering a broad spectrum of environmentally conscious architectural design, new urbanist community planning, building construction, relocalized real estate development, alpine resort management and a variety of related green initiatives.

His demonstrated professional passion centers on working with visionary people and organizations who strive to achieve high levels of sustainability and earth stewardship. Mr. Halley is presently seeking more opportunity to get involved with sustainable power resource development, related sustainable community planning and mixed-use “Green” development projects that integrate principles of relocalization. 

John is the president and CEO of Comet Studios, a dynamic consortium of creative professionals who share passion for the natural environment, sustainability and architectural excellence. With over thirty years of architecture and development experience, Comet Studios specializes in environmentally conscious planning, design and development for new construction and remodel projects.

The Studios’ philosophy incorporates principles of relocalization, new Urbanism and environmentally conscious green building design with innovative, cost effective, and energy efficient passive solar solutions that intentionally blend in with surrounding community and the natural environment.


 John’s Resume

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

  • Founder and President – Comet Studios Consortium (www.cometstudios.com), located at The Sea Ranch (1982-1997), CA; San Francisco, CA (1997-2002), Santa Fe, NM (2002-2017), Taos New Mexico 2017-present)
  • Product Development Manager – Centex Homes, Foster City, CA
  • Construction Manager – Pan Abode Log Homes, a division of Stapps Mobile Homes, Eugene, Oregon
  • Hydroponics Systems Developer & Manager for salt tolerance studies of hybrid citrus plants at Scripps Institute of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA.
  • Comprehensive construction experience over 30 years with the following companies –
    • Centex Homes of Northern California
    • Pan Abode Log Homes – Eugene, Oregon division
    • Scott Butner Corporation, Oakland, CA.
    • G.R. Amundson General Contractor, South Lake Tahoe, CA.
    • Brent Smith Architect & General Contractor, Loomis, CA
    • Sizemore & Sons General Contractor, Sacramento, CA.
    • Attilio Battistello, master builder from Italy
    • Echo Chalet, Echo Lake California

EDUCATION
University of California, La Jolla, Santa Cruz, Berkeley & Davis, CA. 1972-1977
Bachelor of Arts degree in Environmental Design: Professional architecture degree with emphasis on environmentally conscious planning and design.

VOLUNTEER AND NON-PROFIT AFFILIATIONS

Parks & Recreation Director 2010-2013 – Taos Ski Valley, New Mexico
Enchanted Circle Festival Director – Taos Ski Valley, New Mexico

  • In 2011, the Enchanted Circle Festival was created as a year-round community based arts and entertainment venue provided by the Village of Taos Ski Valley.
  • Festival Manager 2011-2012

Taos Mountain Music Festival – Taos Ski Valley, New Mexico
Green Scene Director – August 2009 & September 2010

The summer of 2009, the Taos Ski Valley community sponsored a very successful first annual Taos Mountain Music Festival with an attendance of over 4000 festivians. In an effort to help promote year-round prosperity for Taos Ski Valley, Mr. Halley volunteered as manager of event promotion in Santa Fe and director of the Green Scene aspect of the Taos Mountain Music Festival in 2010 as wellwhere he:

  • Organized and managed a festival waste management & recycling facility including related volunteer crew. This facility included recycling plastics for the first time in Taos Ski Valley,
  • Created festival “green scene” philosophy and related festival web site content (www.taosmountainmusicfestival.com).
  • Introduced and managed festival promotion and ticket sale efforts in Santa Fe.

Transition coordinator for VCA/HOA – Aldea de Santa Fe Home Owners Association, Santa Fe, New Mexico 2007 – 2008

  • As a commercial and residential property owner at Aldea de Santa Fe, Mr. Halley headed up a transition committee responsible for fledging out and resolving interface issues between the Aldea Home Owners Association (HOA), the Aldea Village Center Association (VCA) and the original Aldea LLC developer as needed to help create a smooth transition of power from the Aldea LLC developer to the Aldea Home Owner and Village Center associations.

Community Planning and Development                                            

Master Planner for Tarleton Ranch Eco-Village, Taos, New Mexico – 2016 – present.

  • The Tarleton Ranch Eco-Village has been thoughtfully master planned with a variety of clustered homes and a vibrant commercial village center, developed around a beautiful 113 acre eco-farm park filled with an abundance of recreation and food production opportunities.
  • This Eco-Village embraces sustainability, environmentally conscious principles and a new earth stewardship paradigm with Permaculture solutions that include regeneratively-sustainable renewable energy, food forest agriculture & eco-lifestyles of well-being with green economics.

 

Volunteer Community Planner & Green Development Advocate, Taos Ski Valley, New Mexico – Sept. 2004 – 2016

  • Mr. Halley introduced and initiated a comprehensive community planning effort in the upper Kachina district of Taos Ski Valley that blossomed into a village wide community-sponsored planning effort and the adoption of a comprehensive master plan for all of Taos Ski Valley.
  • As an advocate for green development and wilderness preservation, Mr. Halley has also volunteered effort needed to help create planning and building ordinances & sustainable business policies for the Village of Taos Ski Valley that now mandate more sustainable development & building practices, conservation of precious natural alpine resources and preservation of surrounding fragile wilderness.
  • Mr. Halley has also successfully crafted and proposed prospect real estate deals to key stakeholders in Taos Ski Valley as needed to introduce and facilitate comprehensive land acquisition that enables a more cohesive and environmentally conscious alpine planning and development of the remaining substantial vacant land holdings within the Kachina district.

 

Del Raro Mixed-Use Development, Santa Fe, New Mexico – 2008 – 2009

Mr. Halley provided a mixed-use Pre-development planning and property acquisition effort for a proposed relocalization demonstration project at Aldea de Santa Fe. Mr. Halley successfully provided necessary strategic planning, negotiated business terms and secured necessary agreements for this opportunity.

Arroyo Verde Acquisition, Aldea de Santa Fe, New Mexico – 2007 – 2008

When the original developer of Aldea de Santa Fe failed to provide the necessary build out of the Aldea’s commercial center and one critical pending commercial property deal was locked up in a legal dispute, Mr. Halley introduced and successfully negotiated a deal that solved the dispute while at the same time selling most of the remaining mixed-use commercial center property to two motivated buyers who demonstrated their commitment to get the property developed.

Representing one of the buyers (Arroyo Verde LLC) and acting as a liaison between Buyer and Seller, Mr. Halley successfully:

  • Introduced Arroyo Verde as a viable buyer for all remaining vacant commercial property around Aldea’s plaza, including Aldea’s hotel site.
  • Negotiated initial deal point terms for a successful sale between Buyer and Seller in a manner that resolved a longstanding dispute that the Buyer was involved with concerning some of the same property and an adjacent commercial spa property.

Fledged out and helped finalize with the original developer final drafts of all necessary village center documents, including:

  • The Second Amended and Restated Village Center Declaration (of charter, easements, covenants and restrictions),
  • Amended and Restated Bylaws of the Aldea de Santa Fe Village Center Association,
  • Village Center Rules and Regulations,
  • Village Center Design Code and Building Regulations,
  • Aldea Commercial Parking Plan including related commercial parking requirements and regulations,
  • Aldea de Santa Fe Master Plan documents,
  • Aldea de Santa Fe Water Budget including final commercial allocations,
  • Documentation of Aldea’s final commercial development rights, including an incremental breakdown specifying final commercial development right allocations for every village center property,
  • Final documentation of Aldea’s commercial water rights,
  • And other details required for the Arroyo Verde property acquisition.
  • Created a first draft land purchase agreement for the Arroyo Verde transaction followed by subsequent drafts as needed to move the negotiations along with Buyer, buyer’s attorneys, Seller and Seller’s attorney.
  • Maintained necessary communication and negotiations between Buyer and Seller for a very complicated land deal for over 7 months until all deal points were fully resolved and the land purchase transaction closed. 

Live/Work 7478 Building & Aldea Plaza Live/Work Lofts, Aldea de Santa Fe, New Mexico – 2000 – 2006  

Mr. Halley designed and co-developed the first mixed-use commercial building located at the new urbanist village of Aldea de Santa Fe, located on lots 74-78 framing the west side of Aldea Plaza. Mr. Halley designed, developed and owns the live/work Lofts on Lots 74,75, & 76. Located on sunset side of the plaza, each Live/Work Loft includes luxury residential spaces on the top floor, premium commercial space on the plaza level and alley level commercial support spaces. Framing the west side of Aldea’s plaza these Live/Work Lofts offer a premiere commercial storefront location on Aldea Plaza.

New Urbanist Advocate & Planner, Aldea de Santa Fe, New Mexico – Dec. 2000 – present

  • As an advocate for sustainable commercial development that demonstrates the principle of relocalization, Mr. Halley has volunteered effort needed to promote Aldea’s unique commercial center development to viable commercial prospects that support localized goods and service business models and strategies. 

In an effort to help promote Aldea’s unique Commercial Center opportunities and Aldea Plaza, Mr. Halley created and provided designs and renderings for all Live Work Lofts and commercial properties surrounding the Aldea Plaza. Located in the heart of the Aldea de Santa Fe Village, the Plaza’s commercial center is designed to provide residential living over commercial businesses that are all within easy walking distance from every Aldea home. In an effort to help prospect entrepreneurs understand and embrace the commercial opportunities at Aldea, Comet Studios designed 27 Live Work Lofts surrounding the Aldea Plaza and rendered them in a manner that shares the magical Territorial and Pueblo Revival style village experience that Aldea has to offer.