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CONCEPTS

Three houses in Syracuse win asustainable design competition andreshape an urban neighborhoodfor $200,000 apiece.By William Lambphotos by Richard Barnes

When Mark Robbins came to Syracuse, New York, in 2004 tobecome dean of the Syracuse University School ofArchitecture,arguably no neighborhood was more emblematic of the city'sstruggles-and its potential-than the Near Westside, a once-vibrant collection of bungalows and shotgun cottages west ofdowntown. Many of these structures had been demolishedor fallen into disrepair as manufacturing jobs disappeared andresidents fled for the suburbs, eroding the area's urban fabric.Robbins devised the From the Ground Up competition in 2008,

inviting each team to submit plans for a well-designed, efficientsingle-family home to be built on one of three Near Westsidevacant lots for $150,000. The overarching goal was to forgenew models for residential infill development that could breathenew life into urban communities across the United States."I wanted to see ifwe could build houses that simultaneouslymade propositions about sustainability and about the possibilityof constructing houses in a city like Syracuse," Robbins says.He partnered with two regional organizations-Home Head-

Quarters, which owned the land and served as general contractor,and the Syracuse Center of Excellence, which helped the architectsmeet sustainability goals-to construct the three winning designs.Unique mechanical and material requirements, along with HomeHeadQuarters' insistence that a basement be added to each house,nudged the price tag for each project north of $200,000. Construc-tion was completed in the fall of 2010, and all three houses arenow happily occupied by enthusiastic Near Westside newcomers.

Pr o ec t: R -H ou seD eS l' Il t ea m A Ic h it ec t uI e R es e ar c hoffice New York and Della ValleBern heim er Br ooklSIze 1 100 s uare feet

~."'l.l!.l;si,~iiill"'sign, which promotes passive mof generating and retaining warmth over active-expensive-systems, is central to R-House's succSolar gain-chiefly from rear-facing windows thacascade from roofline to threshold on the buildisouth side-and heat generated by people andtrical equipment warm the house. A thick, superlated, and tightly sealed exterior minimizes heaand an energy-recovery ventilation system transwarmth from the inside air that is being exhausteto the fresh air being drawn from the outside.

"The net result," says ARO's principal, AdamYarinsky, "is you're using the energy equivalenta hair dryer to heat the house."

The house was designed to be flexible. The seond level can be extended across the double-heigliving space to add a third bedroom, for exampleexpenses mounted, Yarinsky and Andrew Bernha partner at Della Valle Bernheimer, dropped plfor a pair of skylights, and settled for drywall insof the more whimsical translucent polycarbonateels they'd envisioned to enclose the two bedroom

"It doesn't take that much technology to achiea certain level of sustainability and a low carbonprint," Yarinsky says. "It just takes smart use of mrials and a strong understanding of how a buildiform relates to its energy consumption."

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A LIMITED MATERIALPALETTE: To managecosts, Yarinsky and Bern-heimer kept things simple.Fiber cement panels and cor-rugated aluminum, coatedwith a clear textured finishto prevent corrosion, wereused for the exterior (above).

DECKING INDOORS:Laminated tongue-and-groove decking by Lock-Deck was used for thesecond-level floor. Thedurable material issturdyenough to span long dis-tances without joists, maxi-mizing headroom inthefirst-floor living room (left).lockdeck.com

VERTICAL JOISTS:To reinforce the thermalefficiency of the envelope,16-inch-wide l-joists madfrom black spruce lumberwere employed aswallstuds, allowing for whatBernheimer describes asa "tremendous amountof insulation." I I "

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CONCEPTS

Des1gn team. Onion Flats, P i ade p iaS1ze: 1,150 square feet

SOLAR CHIMNEYTED'sthree-floor atriumcreatesnatural convection,exhaustingwarmairand humidity from thespaceand eliminatingthe need for anair-

STEEL CLADDING:The rainscreenthat servesasthe building's skinwasmadefrom painted steelpanelsby Pac-Clad(right).The low-maintenancematerial isdurable and,at around $2.30persquarefoot, relatively cheap.pac-clad.com

Unlike its next-door neighbor, R-House, TED wasn'toriginally planned to meet the exacting PassiveHouse standard. Onion Flats initially won on thebasis of its relatively straightforward proposalfor a two-bedroom house with a three-storyinterior atrium. The building's green bona fidescame largely from four roof-mounted thermalsolar panels and a 120-gallon water storage tankthat Tim McDonald, a partner at the firm, sayswould have met nearly all of the home's heat andhot-water needs.After submitting the proposal, though, McDonaldcompleted a course inthe Passive House standard.

Inspired, McDonald modified the original approach,ditching the tank and thermal panels infavor of a

highly insulated, airtight envelope-the equivalent,he says, of shielding the house from the harshSyracuse winter with a fur coat instead of awindbreaker."It was kind of crazy to effectively completely

redraw the project and redesign the envelope, inparticular, and the mechanical systems, but that'swhat we did," he says. "We made even more ofa challenge of it by doing that midstream, but itworked inthe end and it was really fabulous."The owner decided to scrap the original plans

for anelaborate storm-water management system,including a 1,000-galion underground cisternand a landscaped rain garden-but both can stillbe added later.

ECO-FRIENDLYINSULATION:Recycledpolystyreneboard insulationpanebe purchasedfor afraofwhat it coststo buynew.Checkthe panelfully for wearand discanythat aretattered oinsulationdepot.com

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86 March 2012

CONCEPTS

Pro'ect: Live Work HomeDeSl n te am Coo k + Fo x A rc hi te ct s a ndTer ra i n Br i ht Gree n New Yor k

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Richard Cook, a principal at Cook + FoxArchitects,surveyed the Near Westside's inventory of vacantstructures and arrived at a conclusion that would guidethe design of the Live Work Home. "The last thing inthe world that the Near Westside needed was anotherhouse, whether it's green or otherwise," hesays."What it needed was a new prototype."Cook's team designed asinqle-story space with an

open layout. Sliding doors and mobile partitions onwheels canbe configured to create different layoutsfor living and working, eliminating the costsand landfillwaste associated with residential remodeling.Clad with fiber cement board and wrapped inan

MDO plywood solar screen, the building doesn't resem-ble a house somuch asasmall commercial or industrial

MOBILESUSTAINABILlTY:The sliding doorswermade inSyracuseby CFabwith a formaldehyfree plant-and-soy-bascomposite board manfactured bye2e of IthaNewYork.Themobilepartitions were fashiofrom TimberStrand, aengineered lumber mfrom younger trees rathan old-qrowth timbecabfab.come2ematerials.comilevel.com

AN UNCONVEN-TIONAL EXTERIORThesolarscreenismafrom medium-densityoverlay plywood, awiavailable and relativelaffordable material whtraditional usefor highsignstestifiesto itsdur

RECLAIMEDMATERIALS: Recycbuilding materialscanconstructioncostswhilesimultaneouslyforgingwith the past."Bealertwhat isbeing takendointhe areaandtalk to hbuilders,"Campbell sa"Theremaybemore optunitiesthanyou think.

structure-an impression enhanced by a garage-stylebifold door that opens onto the front porch. A photo-graph of dappled sunlight filtering through treetopswasenlarged and pixelated to create the perforationpattern inthe screen, which iscut inplaces intoswiveling panels that canbe turned to create shadeor to bounce light into the house.The pine floor wassalvaged from the dilapidated

shotgun house that was deconstructed to make way forLiveWork Home, and the kitchen cabinets were fash-ioned from wood from a nearby warehouse that wasgutted to create condominiums. "It relates by story backto how the building wasmade," saysPamCampbell,asenior associate at Cook + Fox. "It makes the buildingmore related to the place and connected to it." I