The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Commons, our most recently completed wc street viewaffordable housing development, is officially a PHIUS+ certified project, making it the first multi-family retrofit apartment building in the country certified by the Passive House Institute US (PHIUS).

Passive building refers to a set of design principles used to achieve a rigorous level of energy efficiency. The PHIUS+ Certification program is the leading passive building certification program in the US, and “the only passive building certification that combines a thorough passive house design verification protocol with a stringent Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC) program performed on site by highly skilled and specialized PHIUS+ Raters.”

As a nonprofit developer of affordable housing, Housing Up is committed to increasing the supply of affordable housing stock in the District of Columbia. Weinberg Commons – the product of a unique development approach, sophisticated financing and cutting edge design – address the District’s demand for housing affordable to those earning below 40 percent area median income (AMI).

Finding cost-effective solutions to renovating the housing stock and preserving affordability through financing covenants and deep energy savings is necessary to meet the District’s demand for housing. In developing Weinberg Commons, we rehabilitated three 50-year-old buildings in Southeast DC through a deep energy retrofit, including super-insulation, and air-tight building shell and balanced energy recovery ventilation, which leads to extraordinary reductions in energy use and carbon emissions. Solar panels further reduce energy costs. We are able to pass on these utility savings and lower energy costs to our residents.

We thank everyone involved in the development of Weinberg Commons, especially ZA+D, Passive to Positive, Hamel Builders, Inc. and Conway Energy.

For more information on Passive House design and certification, visit the PHIUS website.


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