Pro Tour: Affordable Passive House Midrise in Brooklyn

Event Date: 

Friday, December 6, 2024

Time: 

1pm-5pm

Location: 

Brownsville
Brooklyn
New York City, NY

CEU Information: 

AIA (4 LU|HSW), Phius (4 credit hours)

Cost: 

$25 Members/$35 Non-Members

Edit: Thank you to our attendees, hosts and sponsors for the great tour. We learned a lot and had a great time. You can see photos from this event here...

Join NESEA for the final Pro Tour of 2024: a Phius passive house-certified, 185,000 square-foot building, providing 160 units of much-needed affordable housing to the neighborhood of Brownsville, Brooklyn.

Our event hosts, Bright Power, are excited to share this project with the NESEA community, as they hope it will serve as a replicable example of how to approach housing disparities and promote sustainability in Central Brooklyn. Our event will begin with an opening workshop where the project team will discuss the history, goals and design and construction and strategies behind this project. Attendees will then break into small groups to hear more from the interdisciplinary team of experts who made the building possible. After the tour, we’ll regroup for a reception and Q&A.

More About the Project

This 7-story, 160-unit Phius+ 2015 residential project includes two buildings joined by a lobby. The lobby level includes shared spaces including coworking space, a fitness center, and community rooms, in addition to the outdoor spaces, such as vegetated courtyards, provided for residents.

The building provides its low-income population with verified thermal comfort, superior air quality, and deep energy savings through a highly efficient envelope and mechanical systems, supplemented by on-site generation technology via the 100 kW rooftop photovoltaic array. The building was designed to ensure efficient temperature regulation throughout the year to promote passive resiliency while operating at a low heating and cooling demand.

The team prioritized a highly insulated envelope to ensure the VRF heating and cooling systems provide maximum comfort as building air leakage has been nearly eliminated, combined with ERVs to provide large amounts of fresh air to the apartments and common areas, with minimal heating or cooling energy loss.

This project received $300,000 from NYSERDA's Multifamily New Construction Program in pursuit of goals to incorporate such high-efficiency standards into a clean and resilient affordable housing project.

Awards/Recognitions

  • Best Overall Project & Low-Rise Multifamily Winner at 2023 Phius awards
  • AIA NYS—Excelsior Award Architizer
  • 2023 A+ Award Finalist, Sustainable Multi-Unit Residential Building PHIUS Design Competition
  • Best Overall Project PHIUS Design Competition
  • Low-Rise Multifamily Winner PHIUS Design Competition
  • Acknowledgement of Excellence in Mixed-Use ULI NY
  • Award for Excellence in Affordable Housing Development, Winner
     

Schedule

12:30 PM

Doors open, registration, networking and coffee

1:00 PM

Welcome by NESEA

1:10 PM

Overview of the project by the host

2:00 PM

Tour of project begins; attendees rotate through content-specific stations

3:45 PM

Group reconvenes and travels back to initial meeting point

4:00 PM

Reception with light refreshments

4:15 PM

Q&A panel with members of project team

5:00 PM

Event concludes

If you have questions about this event, you can contact us via protours@nesea.org.

2024 Pro Tour Series Sponsors:

Presenting Sponsor