“The Heritage” Begins September

Empire Building Challenge Award Winner Beginning at 59th St., the most celebrated stretch of New York’s Fifth Avenue—the leafy, museum-studded gambol on the east side of Central Park—runs two-and-a-half miles to the north, stopping at 110th St in Harlem. At either end, its course is marked by a pair of major buildings: downtown, it’s the Plaza Hotel, one of the city’s most recognizable landmarks; uptown, it’s The Heritage. Though less…


East 79th St Retrofit

This 160-unit residential co-op, constructed in 1961 in New York City’s Upper East Side neighborhood, was an early example of the white glazed brick buildings that came to characterize the area’s development projects of that era. The original building design prioritized comfortable units with large, spacious rooms in keeping with the upscale neighborhood. But the economy of means also dictated a purely functional design of the façade. As the building…


Scalable Solution for High Performance Building Envelope Systems Implemented in East Harlem

The Project NYCEEC provided a $700,000 loan to Dextall, an innovative company that produces unitized prefabricated exterior wall systems with the goal of accelerating decarbonization by creating affordable and efficient solutions for retrofitting buildings. NYCEEC’s loan helped to finance the costs to manufacture and ship Dextall’s panels for installation at a retrofit project at The Heritage in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York City. The Heritage is owned by…


Retrofit Now! Reducing Carbon and Complying with LL97

In partnership with AIA New York, this multi-day course provides 14 CES LU|HSWs and training to make significant energy and carbon reductions in your clients’ buildings. A total of 11.9 PDH credits from the Practicing Institute of Engineering are also now available (reflects total of all four sessions). Retrofit Now! will provide you with a comprehensive overview of New York’s suite of building efficiency laws and show you how to comply with them and make…


THE CHESTNUTS ENERPHIT CASE STUDY – A SCALABLE APPROACH TO RETROFITTING

It is no secret that retrofitting an existing structure to a high standard is more challenging than building a new one. In part, retrofitting is challenging because of the diversity of obstacles faced by designers when considering insulation, airtightness, and thermal bridge mitigation strategies – every house is different. With unprecedented retrofit targets outlined by both Irish and UK governments, it is important to develop scalable retrofit approaches, that can…


NYC Enacts Legislation to Promote All-Electric Buildings

NYC is now the largest city in the U.S. to enact legislation relating to the electrification of buildings. On December 15, 2021, the NY City Council voted in support of Int. 2317A-2021, which effectively mandates the electrification of most new buildings by prohibiting the on-site “combustion of a substance that emits 25 kilograms or more of carbon dioxide per million British thermal units of energy.” Former Mayor Bill de Blasio, a…


“Green Zones: Do Buyers Want Sustainable Buildings?” – Observer article

By Emily Nonko From the Observer:   [caption id="attachment_4922" align="alignright" width="300"] PHOTO CREDIT: Hayes Davidson[/caption] "Last winter, Carroll Gardens resident Laura Mackall didn’t turn the heat on in her home once. “We just didn’t need it,” she said, “And the house stayed between 68 and 70 degrees all winter.” Ms. Mackall lives in a four-story rowhouse that she retrofitted as a Passive House last year. She stumbled upon the notion,…