New York architects are warming up to passive houses — a
voluntary super energy efficient home building standard that has a
following in Europe but is still in its infancy in the U.S. Brooklyn
Cohousing in Park Slope would be one of the first residential projects
in New York and one of only a handful in the country to be built as a
passive house. Future residents of the Park Slope development have
endorsed the passive standard proposed by Ken Levenson, whose firm,
Levenson McDavid Architects, is designing the building at 1901 Eighth
Avenue at 19th Street. Levenson stumbled upon the building standard
while hunting online for ideas on reducing a building’s carbon
footprint. After reading about passive homes and consulting with
German-born architect Katrin Klingenberg, who designed the first
American passive house in Urbana, Ill., Levenson became convinced the
standard could work for Brooklyn Cohousing. [more]