Image credit: New York City

New York City Is Home To Largest Passive House Building In The US

August 15, 20244 weeks ago Steve Hanley 0 Comments

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Recently, we told our readers about how the Passive House Network in America is working to rebrand itself by emphasizing how comfortable buildings constructed to passive house standards are for their occupants. In New York City, the Sendero Verde 709-unit apartment complex is the largest certified passive house building in the United States. Its champions say it can serve as a model for other cities and states that are trying to tackle both the housing crisis and the climate crisis. That’s because many of the residents of Sendero Verde were previously homeless.

“Set in a beautiful community, our studio, one, two and three bedroom apartments for rent in East Harlem offer a refuge in the city and an escape from your bustling day-to-day. Toxin-free finishes and clean air quality will promote your well-being, while each apartment’s environmentally responsible construction will give you peace of mind,” Sendero Verde says on its website.

“Ideally, this is the way that all affordable housing should be developed,” Sadie McKeown, president of the Community Preservation Corporation, an affordable housing finance company that was not involved with Sendero Verde, told The Guardian this week. “When you develop something [with] passive house [principles], the benefits to the tenants are great,” she said, noting sound insulation, fresh air, and lower bills. “The buildings just stand up better to extreme weather conditions, whether that’s wind, rain, heat or excess cold.”

Developers say Sendero Verde uses about half the energy of a comparable non-passive building thanks to insulation, sealing to prevent leakage, thick windows, and ventilation. The result is clean air, quiet interiors, and stable temperatures, even if the power goes out. Spurred by both government incentives and mandates to build greener, such projects offer comfortable, healthy environments to residents who are often the most vulnerable to the effects of a warming planet.

Passive House Living In NYC

Sendero Verde consists of two mid-rise buildings, completed in 2022, and a 34-story tower completed in April of 2024. Its features include:

Energy Star-rated appliances
Large window/natural lighting
Electric range and oven
High efficiency HVAC
Programmable thermostats
Tile bathroom floors
Wood kitchen cabinets
Dishwasher
Eco-friendly LVT plank flooring

There are also community gardens, shared outdoor terraces with native plants, a fitness center, a playground, computer labs, and multi-purpose rooms. One of the buildings houses a charter school, with additional space reserved for retail and social services such as occupational therapy and mental health care.

The goal, said Jonathan Rose, president of Jonathan Rose Companies and one of Sendero Verde’s developers, was to create a “community of opportunity. For our residents, we have a responsibility to give as much resilience as possible. So I think passive housing is a really good methodology and opportunity for that.”

Sendero Verde, which means “green path” in Spanish, takes up an entire city block in East Harlem, a low income, formerly redlined neighborhood whose dearth of trees make it significantly hotter than the wealthier and leafier Upper East Side neighborhood a few blocks south. Those disparities put residents at a higher risk for heat-related illnesses and death. Black and Hispanic New Yorkers are more likely to die from heat stress compared to white people, according to city statistics.

In 2016, as part of a broader neighborhood rezoning plan, the various housing authorities that serve New York City called on developers to submit plans for sustainable affordable housing on property owned by the city, offering subsidies for the project. The competition was “a good impetus, kind of getting us and getting others in the industry to maybe speed along this change,” said Jessica Yoon, managing director at L+M Development Partners, one of Sendero Verde’s developers. “We were probably all plodding along towards it anyways.” Construction costs were about 6% to 8% more than a non-passive house project, according to the developers, though costs have come down since then.

The federal Inflation Reduction Act includes rebates and tax credits that support many elements of passive construction — including for ventilation upgrades and electric appliances — and both New York State and the city of New York offer funding and incentives for energy-efficient buildings.

“We’re trying to do dense and smart and land sensitive buildings, so passive house is a good fit for that naturally,” said Jennifer Bloom Leone, chief sustainability officer for New York City’s department of housing preservation and development. “As the city moves off of fossil fuels toward all-electric new buildings, passive house can help significantly reduce energy use. This will minimize the risk of grid outages and rising utility costs while providing other benefits like occupant health and safety.”

Passive House For Comfortable Living

There are currently over 1,860 certified passive houses in New York City, but that figure is soon expected to grow. Last year, state and city officials launched a $15 million fund to “fast track the creation of 3,000 energy efficient and all-electric affordable homes in New York City.” The program would support up to 30 buildings, effectively doubling the number of passive projects the city has financed since 2014.

Because they are so well insulated, passive homes use less energy than traditional homes, which means lower utility bills. This efficiency is especially helpful to consumers who are electrifying their homes, since electricity for New York City residents often costs more than methane gas. “If you’re going to be using electricity as your primary energy source, then you have to be really wise about how you’re using it,” said Laura Humphrey, senior director of energy and sustainability at L+M Development Partners. She added that, given the climate and health benefits of passive housing, all its new construction projects would either be passive or aim to achieve a similar level of energy efficiency. “We used to have cars without seat belts, and now we have seat belts in cars. Yes, it costs more, but it saves lives.”

The Takeaway

The Passive House Network is adjusting its message to focus on the comfort of living in a home built to passive house standards. Not only are they more energy efficient, they make for a quieter, more peaceful indoor experience. An individual homeowner may be able to offset any increase in initial cost through lower utility bills, but what’s in it for a developer and commercial landlord?

Quite simply, every building has common areas, and those spaces need to be heated and cooled, which costs money. Assuming a building has a 50-year useful life, landlords stand to pocket substantial savings on their own utility costs over that entire period. Not building to passive house standards may save a few bucks up front, but as my old Irish grandmother might say, that is like being penny wise and pound foolish.

The part of this story that may fly under the radar is that a significant number of the residents in Sendero Verde were previously homeless. At a time when homelessness is endemic all across the US and the Supreme Court has ruled that homeless people can be prosecuted and fined, it is refreshing to see some effort is being made to provide homes for the homeless that are built to the highest standard. Perhaps this would be a good time to recall the wisdom of Helen Keller, who said, “The test of a democracy is not the magnificence of buildings or the speed of automobiles or the efficiency of air transportation, but rather the care given to the welfare of all the people.”

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