New York can add affordable housing without raising taxes. Here’s how

Most agree there is a housing crisis in New York State. According to the New York State Comptroller, housing costs went up 68% in the last decade. Housing accounts for roughly 40% of total household expenses in New York City, where many residents spend on average $30,000 a year for housing. How can we all work together to address the housing crisis without raising taxes? Continue Reading


New construction project on Webster Avenue bringing affordable housing to the Bronx

3118 Webster Avenue has broken ground in the Norwood neighborhood of the Bronx! The building’s varied massing and gray and earth-toned masonry complement and activate Webster Ave’s streetscape. C+GA is working with The Doe Fund and Lettire Construction Corp. on this 11-story affordable and supportive housing project providing 109 apartments and 1,500 SF of ground-level retail space. Residents will have access to onsite supportive services, including case management, substance abuse…


Expanding the Cross-Learning Alliance

We’re proud to be joining the Cross-Learning Alliance! Created in 2018, the Alliance brings cutting-edge events that promote dialogue and information-sharing among the people who own, design, build, manage and operate buildings. Founding members include Urban Green, AIA New York and ASHRAE New York Chapter. Learn More


Climate Week 2023

[embed]https://youtu.be/raUUQVwPs7g[/embed] Climate Week NYC We Can. We Will. September 17-24 2023 Organized by Climate Group Learn More >   Join Us at our Symposium: Regenerative Metropolis on Friday, September 22 from 12 PM - 7 PM and learn about the solutions to decarbonize the building industry. Learn More >    


Replacing ACs with heat pumps: A backdoor way to decarbonize heating

Heat pumps are often touted as an efficient way to decarbonize home heating. But a new approach to driving their adoption is on the rise in the U.S. Over the past few months, federal energy-efficiency regulators and state and city building-code overseers have begun to promote policies aimed at encouraging people to replace their existing central air-conditioning systems with heat pumps. Although heat-pump sales already outpaced gas furnace sales last year, new research…


Startup claims breakthrough in turning the earth’s heat into clean power

Fervo Energy, a leading geothermal energy startup, says it achieved a technology breakthrough that could eventually accelerate the push to pull up carbon-free energy from deep down in the earth. On Tuesday, Fervo said it had successfully completed a full-scale well test that confirms the commercial viability of its next-generation technology. The Houston-based startup uses horizontal drilling techniques and fiber-optic sensing tools to access geothermal resources that are otherwise too expensive or technically complex to reach…


PASSIVE HOUSE PODCAST EP. 147: JOHN SEMMELHACK, IAQ AND WILDFIRE SMOKE

Passive House Podcast co-host Zack Semke catches up with John Semmelhack, co-owner of the Comfort Squad based in Charlottesville, Virginia, and a member of the Phius Technical Committee. John shares an immediate, triage solution to keeping indoor air clean (the Corsi-Rosenthal cube) as well as a long-term, structural solution (Passive House airtightness and ventilation with high-performance filtration). Listen to learn about short-term triage solutions as well as longer-term structural solutions…


What we can learn from Nordic countries about affordable housing

The article below is an op-ed by MAP Founding Principal Magnus Magnusson published in Crains New York Business, May 15, 2023 Everyone is talking about making New York housing more affordable and plentiful. But there are lessons from a unique "home-centric" culture that shouldn’t be overlooked. As an Iceland-born architect who has been designing housing in New York for more than 30 years, I’ve seen the achievements and failures of…


DIVE BRIEF To improve multifamily housing energy efficiency and resiliency, HUD offers $4.8B for retrofits

Dive Brief: The Department of Housing and Urban Development has opened its first round of funding applications for the Green and Resilient Retrofit Program, which will provide a total of $4.8 billion in direct loans and grants for HUD-assisted multifamily properties to fund green, energy-efficient and resiliency renovation projects. The housing agency published a set of guidelines and qualifications for potential applicants to the GRRP, including information on each of its “cohorts,”…


NEW YORK HOLDS THE TORCH FOR AN ALL-ELECTRIC BUILDINGS FUTURE

New York recently made history when it became the first state to pass ambitious legislation that will require most new buildings to be all-electric. The law, negotiated as part of the state budget deal, underscores the importance of tackling buildings in order to meet our climate goals and sets an important precedent for the rest of the country. Along the way, state leaders want to show how eliminating fossil fuels…


Why this NYC apartment complex will use a giant underground heat pump

  Construction is underway on the 1 Java Street project in Brooklyn, New York. (David Joshua Ford) BROOKLYN, New York — The 200-by-600-foot property skirting the shoreline in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood is, for the moment, an enormous mud pit. Excavators scoop up whole chunks of earth, making room for concrete piles sprouting rebar strands. All the while, four blue drilling rigs trawl the site on skid-tracked wheels, boring holes into the…


N.J. will now target 100% clean energy, require all-electric cars by 2035, Murphy says

Less than a week after Minnesota joined 10 other states in setting lofty zero-emissions goals, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Wednesday that New Jersey will get more ambitious than most — aiming for 100% clean energy by 2035 instead of 2050. New Jersey will also look to follow California’s lead and require new cars sold in the state be all-electric in 12 years. But how exactly the Garden State will get there and what the associated costs…