River Architects Honored at PhiusCon 2025 for The Bank Lofts
In this photo from Phius, James stands alongside Kimberley Llewellyn, Phius Board President, and Josh Edmonds of Simple Integrity, the Certified Passive House Builder whose craftsmanship helped bring this ambitious project to life.
River Architects Honored at PhiusCon 2025 for The Bank Lofts
We’re thrilled to share a proud moment from PhiusCon 2025 in Milwaukee, where James Hartford, Principal at River Architects, accepted the Phius Design Competition 2025 medal in the Retrofit Category for The Bank Lofts project. The recognition represents the hard work and collaboration of the full Bank Lofts team, including architects Juhee Lee-Hartford and Di W. George, and our client Dooalot LLC, whose vision and commitment to high-performance design made this project possible.
Located in Richfield Springs, NY, The Bank Lofts transforms a long-vacant 1880s bank building into a fossil-fuel-free, high-performance mixed-use development. Supported by NYSERDA, this adaptive reuse project preserves the building’s historic character while meeting rigorous standards for energy efficiency, comfort, and resilience.
For River Architects, this project embodies some of our guiding values: the intersection of sustainability, community revitalization, and historic preservation. It demonstrates how climate action and design innovation can breathe new life into existing structures while strengthening small communities.
Receiving this honor from Phius underscores the growing importance of retrofit and adaptive reuse projects in the global shift toward carbon-conscious architecture. We’re deeply proud of our team and collaborators for setting a new standard for what a 19th-century building can achieve in the 21st century.
Congratulations again to everyone who contributed to this transformative project and thank you to Phius for recognizing The Bank Lofts among this year’s outstanding Passive House projects.