NESEA Events

Event Name Date Description
BuildingEnergy Pro Tour NZE Living in the Hudson Valley Friday, December 6, 2019

NESEA's tour of a two-family, NZE residential project located within walking distance to the Cold Spring Metro-North stop!

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Pro Tour: ZNE Home in Central NY Friday, June 17, 2016

Our June 17 Pro Tour in Pulaski, NY featured one of the first net zero homes in Central/Western NY. This isn’t your typical net zero design – traditional stick building elements were combined with the age-old craft of timber framing to form the bones of the project. Natural lighting, on-site PV array, and a design allowing winter passive solar heat gain and summer shade are just the tip of the iceberg.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Virtual Pro Tour: 1890s Farmhouse to Super Insulated Commercial Space Friday, November 13, 2020

NESEA's interactive Pro-Tour, hosted by Garland Mill, featured a deep dive into the conversion of a 1890s farmhouse that has been transformed into a super insulated building providing space for arts and education nonprofits in Littleton, NH. Just like an in-person Pro Tour, this event mixed presentation with small group conversation, giving participants the chance to meet project team members and one another.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Passive House Certified, Affordable Multifamily in the Bronx Friday, December 15, 2023

Join NESEA for this September Pro Tour of a Phius-certified passive midrise bringing 53 units of affordable housing to the Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx. During this tour, led by our hosts from Curtis + Ginsberg Architects, our attendees will learn about the design strategies and innovative energy-efficiency and sustainability measures that made this project possible.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour DER Grist Mill & Net Zero Home Friday, November 3, 2017

Attendees of this event were able to tour two very different projects: a newly construction net-zero house and a former grist mill, built in 1850, that has been converted into a residence and offices through a phased deep-energy retrofit process.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Environmental Education Center Built for LBC Zero Energy Certification Friday, September 14, 2018

This Pro Tour featured the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s new net zero environmental learning center. During this event, attendees learned how the team at Maclay Architects approached balancing the energy and conservation goals of this project while designing a space that best supports the needs of the occupants.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour 2019 Pro Tour Launch Party Thursday, March 21, 2019

NESEA officially unveiled the schedule for the 2019 Pro Tour series at our second annual Pro Tour Launch Party. Guests joined us for an evening of networking, appetizers, and drinks as we showed off our great lineup for 2019.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Placetailor Pro Tour Friday, March 20, 2015

Join NESEA for a Boston-area Pro Tour hosted by Placetailor. This Pro Tour will showcase two different projects, including the Hawthorne Youth Community Center and the Lamartine Lofts, located on the cusp of Jamaica Plain and Roxbury, MA. Placetailor tour guides will talk about high performance structures, community engagement and education, and the realities of working in tight urban spaces.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Pro Tour: Deep Energy Retrofit of a Historic Mill Friday, May 20, 2016

The Abbot Mill complex consists of 13 former woolen mill buildings dating from the late 1800s, now on the National Register of Historic Places in Westford, MA. This Pro Tour showcased the six years of work that it took to rehabilitate this historic industrial property into a modern, high-performing residential complex.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Large Scale, State-Owned CLT Building in Massachusetts Friday, December 8, 2023

Join NESEA for our final Pro Tour of 2023, featuring Massachusetts’s first publicly funded, large scale state-owned CLT building.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Award-Winning Passive House & NESEA Annual Meeting Friday, August 18, 2017

This event features a Pro Tour of an international award-winning home built to Passive House standards, designed to serve as a teaching tool for sustainable building while seamlessly blending into the historic neighborhood that surrounds it. Registration for this event includes lunch, the Pro Tour, and NESEA's Annual Meeting.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Virtual Pro Tour: Mid-Rise Passive House & Urban Density Study Friday, March 12, 2021

NESEA's virtual Pro Tour, featured a mid-rise project built to Passive House standards that includes 30 units of affordable housing and an early education center. Curtis + Ginsberg Architects, the hosting firm, were joined by additional members of the team to share design strategies, mechanical systems and energy use, sustainability issues, and the developer perspective behind this award winning project.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Fine Homebuilding Magazine's NZE Teaching Home Friday, March 30, 2018

Thanks to everyone who joined NESEA for the first event of the 2018 BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Series, featuring a net-zero-ready home on the Vermont/New Hampshire border. This production-built home is situated in a small development of net-zero-ready houses, all with a focus on affordability and universal design principles.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Brooklyn Brownstone DER Friday, December 13, 2019

Join NESEA for our final Pro Tour of the 2019 season, featuring a deep energy retrofit of a brownstone in Sunset Park – a retrofit that was performed with occupants in place!

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour 2015 Zero Net Energy Building Award Winner Pro Tour Friday, May 1, 2015

Thirty-five people gathered on a sunny spring afternoon for a Pro Tour of the home that won the 2015 Zero Net Energy Building Award, located in Greenfield, MA. The tour was led by builder and homeowner Spartan Giordano and lead carpenter Adam Heintz, and concluded with a reception, presentation and Q&A session.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Passive House Coastal Campus Pro Tour Friday, August 5, 2022

This Pro Tour explored the Schiller Coastal Studies Center, a scientific village that is the new home for Bowdoin’s Marine Science program.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Pro Tour: Melpet Farm Net Zero Affordable Housing Community Friday, May 6, 2016

This Pro Tour will took attendees to the Melpet Farm Residences, a recently completed affordable housing community in Dennis, MA. These homes were built to near Net Zero standards despite the intensely regulated pricing of affordable housing units.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Net Zero Energy & Net Zero Water Elementary School in Massachusetts Friday, April 21, 2023

Join NESEA as we kick off the 2023 Pro Tour series at the first net zero energy and net zero water elementary school in Massachusetts.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour New England's Largest Passive House Friday, June 9, 2017

Join NESEA for a tour of the Distillery North, the largest Passive House in New England: a cost-competitive 30 unit apartment building located in South Boston. This is the first phase of a three phase project that will eventually span three buildings, 260,000 sq.ft, and an entire city block.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Virtual Pro Tour: Historic NYC Firehouse to Modern Passive House Friday, April 16, 2021

This virtual Pro Tour offered participants a behind-the-scenes look at a unique renovation in Manhattan: the transformation of a historic firehouse into 4 units of PHI-certified passive housing.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour New NZE Multi-Family Housing Friday, April 20, 2018

Attendees of this Pro Tour learned how this land was transformed from the site of a single-family condemned house to the site of 4 combustion-free, net-zero duplex homes. The team behind this infill project detailed the history and lessons learned, offering this as an example for municipalities looking for ways to infill for community, housing, and tax support without extending infrastructure.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour All-Electric, Affordable Passive House Development in Boston Friday, April 26, 2024

Join NESEA for the first Pro Tour of 2024, a new construction passive house project that will bring 50 units of affordable senior housing to the community of Roxbury, Massachusetts.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour First Rhode Island Passive House Pro Tour Friday, April 17, 2015

Over 50 builders, students, architects, engineers, contractors and real estate professionals joined NESEA on a Pro Tour of the first Passive House in Rhode Island on Friday, April 17. The tour was hosted by builder Steve DeMetrick, and led by Steve DeMetrick, the architect Steve Baczek, the Passive House rater John Rodenhizer and the Passive House consultant Dan Roy. The event concluded with a reception and workshop led by homeowners and commercial real estate appraisers Brad and Jordan Hevenor on the topic of appraising high performance buildings.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Pro Tour: LEED Platinum Certified Campus Friday, August 19, 2016

This Pro Tour will brought participants into the forest of southwestern Vermont to walk through the innovative, Leed Platinum Certified Burr and Burton Academy Mountain Campus (BBAMC). Since its completion in 2012, BBAMC has been functioning as an immersive satellite campus where students can learn about environmental science and sustainable, green building principles.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour NZE Community College Health and Science Center Friday, December 1, 2017

Attendees on this Pro Tour learned how the Zero Net Energy (ZNE) design for this large institutional building was developed without increasing costs, despite the cold climate and high-energy needs of the health and science equipment the occupants rely on.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Resilient, Passive Mid-rise in Urban Setting Friday, May 4, 2018

This Pro Tour showcased a 101-unit, mid-rise, purpose-built to expand the designated-affordable housing units in the Far Rockaways area of southern Queens in New York City. This project was built to Passive House standards with special attention to resiliency features for extreme weather events.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour LEED Platinum Environmental Education Center Friday, March 29, 2019

The first BuildingEnergy Pro Tour of 2019 featured an environmental learning center built for LEED Platinum certification.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Berkshire County Jail Pro Tour Friday, June 5, 2015

During this Pro Tour of the Berkshire County Jail, a group of architects, engineers, and municipal planners, among others, toured the site of one of the deepest reductions of energy use by a state facility in Massachusetts.The project is projected to result in a 52% reduction in energy use through operational improvements, electrical and mechanical systems optimization and onsite renewable production. The tour of this 148,000 square foot facility was led by Bart Bales, PE, MSME of Bales Energy Associates, the energy engineer for the project, and concluded with a reception, presentation... Full Description

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Pro Tour: Passive and Net Zero Buildings on a Working Farm Friday, September 16, 2016

This Pro Tour took us through a mixed-use site featuring residential green building methods in a small-scale agricultural setting. The event featured three distinct residences (a main house, a guest house, and an apartment) built with the guidance of Passive House and Net Zero principles.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour The Largest Market-Rate Net Zero Complex in the US Friday, June 16, 2023

Join NESEA as we tour Solara Phase 3, a low embodied carbon, market-rate, net zero multifamily complex in Rotterdam, NY. The complex, including the first two phases, will be the largest market-rate net zero complex in the US upon completion.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour 18th Century Building Retrofitted For Living Building Challenge Friday, April 21, 2017

This Pro Tour will bring attendees to the Williams College campus for a close look at an academic center built to the stringent standards of the Living Building Challenge. This project consists of two distinct parts, combining new-construction with a deep energy retrofit of a college building dating back to 1793.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Virtual Pro Tour: Affordable Passive Housing & Non-Profit Community Facility Friday, June 18, 2021

This virtual Pro Tour went behind-the-scenes with members of the team responsible for the Tree of Life project, a new building in Queens that includes 174 units of Passive House certified housing, a community health center, and a community facility operated by the First Presbyterian Church of Jamaica. We heard how the project team worked together to satisfy both high performance certification goals and the needs of the community the building was designed to serve.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Resilient Retrofit and ZNE Office Building Friday, May 18, 2018

This Pro Tour featured two very different projects: a new-construction, 8-unit ZNE office building and a single-family DER renovated for energy efficiency and storm resiliency. Attendees heard from the teams behind both projects at this event co-hosted by Alfandre Architecture and Integral Building + Design.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour North America's Largest Affordable Passive House Friday, April 5, 2019

This Pro Tour offered attendees a first look at one of the newest Passive House projects in New York City –an innovative fifteen-story building providing 154-units of sustainable housing.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Pro Tour of Two Renewable Energy-Powered Houses in NJ Friday, September 4, 2015

This Pro Tour visited two sites located in Augusta and Lafayette, NJ, both of them residential homes. Each of these houses uses combinations of both passive and active renewable energy systems, including wind power, and most notably solar power.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Pro Tour: 3rd PHIUS-Certified Home in RI Friday, December 2, 2016

Construction on this new residence started in spring 2016; the Pro Tour will offer a chance for participants to see the way the project has come together, while the building process is still underway. This home serves as an example of residential construction that strategically employs standard building materials and techniques to meet the passive house standard.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Virtual Pro Tour: NZE Solar Village in Geneva NY Friday, December 4, 2020

NESEA's December 2020 Pro Tour was a ZNE solar village, comprising 18 townhouse-style units of modular housing in New York’s Finger Lakes region.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour LEED Platinum School on the North Shore Friday, August 18, 2023

Join NESEA as we tour the award-winning Saugus Middle High School Complex, the first state-funded school to earn LEED Platinum certification. This recently-completed 271,000 square foot facility was built to serve over 1,300 students and the community for years to come. The project reduces the site’s carbon emissions and water use and links the town’s past heritage and future needs.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Passive DER of 19th Century Row House Friday, June 23, 2017

Join NESEA for our first Pro Tour in Pennsylvania: a deep-energy retrofit of an 1898 brick row house renovated for Passive House EnerPHit certification and energized by a "Powerwall" of retired BMW Mini E batteries.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Battery-Powered, NZE Single-Family Home Friday, June 1, 2018

More than 65 attendees joined NESEA for this sold-out Pro Tour of a single-family, net-zero energy home designed to meet ambitious performance metrics and provide safety and resiliency in the event of an extended power outage. The hosting team from Paul Lukez Architecture shared how innovative technologies and design can be successfully integrated into a compact living model that matches the occupant’s lifestyle while saving – and producing – energy.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Island Revival: A High Performance Home on an Island in Maine Friday, May 3, 2024

Join NESEA for this spring Pro Tour of an under-construction single family home on Peaks Island, just a short ferry ride from Portland, ME.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Affordable Multi-Family Built to High Performance Standards Friday, April 26, 2019

This tour featured Parris Terraces, a new project providing Portland, ME with 23 units of affordable housing. The tour happened as the build was nearing completion, giving attendees the opportunity to see the progress of the project in its final stages.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Rhode Island Net Zero Pro Tour Friday, November 7, 2014

On Friday, November 7, 2014 NESEA hosted a BuildingEnergy Pro Tour in Rhode Island. 46 professionals joined NESEA on tours of two homes in Jamestown and Tiverton, one a single family home designed to achieve zero energy status with a 12kW solar array that powers the geothermal heating system and the plug loads for the house, and another in Tiverton built on spec and designed to be net zero yet priced competitively with non net zero homes built on spec in the area.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Passive House Retrofit of a Brooklyn Heights Carriage House Friday, March 25, 2022

NESEA's first Pro Tour of 2022, the in-person event showcased a Passive House retrofit of an 1800s Brooklyn Heights carriage house.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Pro Tour of Two Living Building Challenge Projects Friday, September 18, 2015

On 9/18/15, NESEA held on a Pro Tour of two projects under construction on the Hampshire College campus in Amherst, MA, designed to meet the rigorous standards of the Living Building Challenge (LBC). There are currently only eight certified LBC projects in the world.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Pro Tour: ZNE Homestead in Southern CT Friday, June 3, 2016

On June 03, 2016, NESEA held our first-ever Pro Tour in Connecticut. Attendees took a mid-construction tour of Waystone Farm on an 8-acre parcel in North Guilford, Ct; a project inspired by a Connecticut couple’s lifelong dream to leave as small a footprint as possible while also being as self-sustaining as they can; from an energy standpoint but also in terms of living off their land.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Low-Embodied Carbon Commercial Project in Upstate New York Friday, November 3, 2023

Join NESEA as we tour the new Soul Fire Farm Program Center, a nearly all-electric commercial building constructed from straw-insulated panels. The project team, led by New Frameworks, will share the story of this project, including history, design strategies, and materials.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Commercial Solar Headquarters in Central Vermont Friday, November 17, 2017

This Pro Tour brought attendees into the recently completed, net-positive headquarters of SunCommon, a company providing photovoltaic array financing, leasing, and installation in Vermont and New York State. Hosted by the project team from Maclay Architects and Energy Balance Inc., this half-day tour of the 15,000 square-foot project highlighted the design process and unique challenges of a commercial developer "built to suit" project while providing insights into the performance data from the building’s first year of occupancy.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour Passive High School Built for Cold, Coastal Climate Friday, June 15, 2018

This Pro Tour brought participants to southern Maine to tour a recently completed PHIUS-certified high school. The event was hosted by BRIBURN, the architecture firm behind the project. Speakers shared the complexities they navigated while designing this small high school.

BuildingEnergy Pro Tour LEED Platinum Certified, Affordable Urban Midrise Friday, May 17, 2019

This Pro Tour brought attendees to Creston Avenue Residences, a LEED Platinum Certified, 66-unit development with 21 units set aside for chronically homeless adults.

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