Cooperstown Multifamily Development

Cooperstown, NY 

This multifamily development is the result of an exceptional partnership between a Passive House Institute US (PHIUS) certified builder and a long-time creative director of arts and culture, who came together to create a conscientious, sustainable, and well planned multifamily project in Cooperstown, New York. They deliberately sought out a firm that met all their criterion under one roof: architectural design capability, sensitivity to the historic town, and Passive House technical expertise. River Architects, PLLC was the perfect match.

The combined team proposed multifamily building of 17,000 GSF with 13 apartment units, a total of 21 beds, and 21 parking spaces. Amazingly, the street appearance of the building is that of an average, single-family house. The shape of the lot, neighboring buildings, and large trees conceal the bulk of the building.

The building envelope is comprised of high-performance windows and doors, a 2x6 service chase filled with cellulose insulation with ZipWall sheathing layer, and externally applied mineral wool insulation with rainscreen siding. The team took further steps to reduce energy consumption in the building. They proposed locating the trash collection area outside of the building instead of installing a trash chute, which would create complications in the building envelope. They opted to provide individual mini-split heat pump units for each apartment to avoid the inconvenience of a central HVAC system. Inversely, the client decided upon a shared laundry facility in order to reduce the plug-load throughout the building. The team is also pursuing a pipe-within-pipe heat recovery method with hot water heaters located adjacent to the grouped plumbing fixtures of several dwelling units, instead of a typical recirculating hot water loop.

The shared values between the PHIUS experienced builder-developer and PHIUS certified architects resulted in a seamless, fluid, and efficient workflow. Congruent experience, along with the Client’s knowledge of the local approval process, enabled the team to move quickly from Schematic Design and WUFI energy modeling to Bid Set in just 4 months.

This project was a winner of the 2023 Department of Energy Housing Innovation Awards.