What specific Independent hood are you installing?

One concern I would have, particularly with the powerful Blue Star cook top, is the capture area of the hood. The depth of most Independent hoods is 24" with at least one at 27" (Incline Barbeque). How deep is the cook top on the Blue Star? Is it more than 24". It strikes me that the hood should extend as deep as the cooking surface below it, and ideally should perhaps extend beyond it. Your 42" hood width for a 36" wide range does solve that problem on two sides, but what about the front of the stove?

Is your exhaust fan motor in-hood or remote? What is the difference in noise level between those two options?

Of course my concern about the capture area depends on how you cook. If you are buying a Blue Star, I presume that you are cooking at a high temperature with steak searing and wok frying common. On the other hand if you do not cook that way, then I imagine a few inches will make little difference.

excelent choice on the miele dishwasher. they are great

I think the previous comments about the Independent hood are right. You might also consider the possibility that you will need make-up air with that much cfm capacity. That will certainly add to the cost and complexity of the installation. And, depending on the climate in your region (frigid winters in Minnesota??) you may need to heat the make-up air.

Make sure your installer has expertise in installations of this level of complexity.

Thanks for the input viv and haus. We currently are getting the 24" depth INCL42 but we will look at the INBQ42 now as well.

Having tried to read up on the hoods I have more questions than when I started. Our house is/will be EnergyStar certified, which is great, but it also means that the house will be more airtight. We are going to be talking to our builder to see if the HVAC system can handle a 1200 CFM hood.

Is 1200 CFM needed? Will it have any impact on the lifetime of our HVAC? If we go to the 42x27 over the 36" range will 640CFM be sufficient?

Ideally the builder will tell us, yeap, the 1200 is fine and this will all be moot.

Press your builder about the issue of make-up air. With a 1200 CFM hood you may need it and your builder may well be ignorant on the subject. As long as your range doesn't have a grill, you'd most likely be fine with a 600 CFM hood