This Pro Tour will feature Elm Place, a recently-constructed, 30-unit building which is poised to become the first multifamily Passive House structure in Vermont.

Hosted by Duncan Wisniewski Architecture, this tour will offer attendees an opportunity to learn about the techniques the design team employed to satisfy Passive House standards while still meeting the strict affordable housing budget.

Elm Place includes 30 units of senior one-bedroom apartments, more than 27 parking spaces, and common space great room, lounge, office, meeting, nurse, activity room, exercise and laundry. The clients have calculated that the strategies used to achieve the Passive certification only increased the budget by 2% compared to typical senior housing projects, making this a reproducible, affordable model for multi-family. The hosts will be sharing the simple techniques they used to meet the Passive House standard.

Duncan Wisniewski Architecture will be joined by other members of the project team as they lead attendees through Elm Place. The tour will detail how they overcame several design challenges, including a site with minimal southern exposure, affecting passive and active solar gains, and planning for covered parking, which stressed the budget and presented issues with the thermal bridging challenges of the non-combustible steel framing.

After the tour, there will be a networking reception and a Q&A panel with the hosts.

Site Details

• 29,340 sq.ft.
• HERS rating of 15
• Pre-certified for PHIUS rating
• 15 kW roof-mounted PV array
• Hybrid steel/concrete (garage) and wood frame
• R70 Roof (mechanically fastened membrane)
• Natural gas fired DHW with circulator pumps

Schedule