New Project: Red Hook Passive House
I am immensely pleased to announce a new project: the renovation of an existing mixed-use building into a PHI-certified sound studio and residence in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn. Buildings built to this standard use radically less energy than conventional construction: ours will have to use 90% less heating and cooling energy, and 70% less for all energy uses combined, as compared to a new building built to code… and we are working within the constraints and challenges of renovating an existing building in one of the most challenging environments in the country. By comparison, most LEED-certified new buildings only use approximately 25%less. This project will likely be New York City’s first mixed-use certified Passive House, the city’s second certified Passive House of any type, and something like the 12th in the country. We are planning a solar array large enough to make us NYC’s first (second? third?) net-zero building, and, best of all, the music made here, all-electronic, will literally be made from the sun: it will be made and played whether or not the rest of the world has power.