Project Name: 

Uptown Lofts

Project Square Footage (ft²): 

Two Buildings totaling 52,000 SF

Year Built:

2013-2015

Green Building Certifications: 

Passive House Certification (first multi-family Passive House project in Pennsylvania)

Project Team: 

ACTION-Housing (Owner), 4080 Architecture (Architect), Mosites Construction (CM), Iams Consulting

 

Please provide a brief description of the project.

Two, three-story affordable housing complexes. Uptown Lofts’ north building is Passive House certified while the south building is certified to Energy Star Standards.

 

How did the building's team work together to address sustainability and building performance?

Bi-weekly coordination meetings between the Owner, Architect, CM, and additional team members. The team engaged a Sustainable Design Consultant during the design phase.

What were major challenges in the project related to building performance and how did the project team work to overcome them?

Limited knowledge of PHIUS requirements. Bi-weekly coordination meetings were conducted with the Owner, Architect, and Constructor. These meetings served as a forum to review significant systems and their cost impacts.

 

What are the project's key sustainability features?

.The North Building's envelope was designed and constructed to achieve PHIUS+ Certification. The South Building's envelope was design and constructed to meet the thermal performance requirements of the 2012 International Energy Conservation Code and Energy Star® Certified Homes (Version 3.0) standards. Additional key sustainability features include: Exterior Walls - Ventilated Rainscreen Facade, Suspended Floor above Parking; EPDM Roofing, Windows: Fiberglass frames; with one of the window manufacturer’s standard glazing types – 1-3/8inch thickness triple-pane glazing: 2 panes of clear glazing with high-SHGC low-E coating on the 3rd and 5th surfaces, interior suspended film, and argon fill, and Doors: Thermally-broken aluminum entrance system (1-inch thickness double-pane glazing with high-SHGC Low-E coating) or thermally-broken steel door and frame assembly.

 

What are your main take-aways or lessons learned from this project? Have these lessons informed other projects?

Blower Door Testing Experience - This was used on a current project on CMU's campus - Forbes & Beeler Residence Hall.
A better understanding of PHIUS and green building standards.

 

What was the intended or actual impact of the project on its users or the surrounding community?

The development was designed as a demonstration project that compares two building types for energy efficiency. The project is designed to demonstrate how the Passive House model can be used in the building of multi-family properties. This information will be used to guide our future development work and will be made available to others interested in understanding how to build efficient buildings within modest budget parameters. The buildings bring a high level of dignity to an all too often overlooked user in a neglected part of town.