Project: Historic Harlem House / Location: New York City / Architect: MESH Architectures / Location: Brooklyn, N.Y. / General Contractor: Noranda Special Projects / Interior Designer: John Eric Sebesta / Structural Engineers: Kathleen Dunne, George Ozaeta / MEP Engineer: P. A. Collins / Photographer: Frank Oudeman
This house in the middle of historic Harlem was likely a stately sight once upon a time, but over the years it had declined to a broken-up three-family dwelling. The owners, a college professor and corporate consultant with four children, wished to restore it to a single-family dwelling, while repairing the extensive original woodwork around the windows, doors, stairs and fireplaces.
At the same time, they wanted to introduce transitional modern elements where appropriate. After learning about the passive house standard that dramatically reduces energy use through insulation, air sealing and efficient heating and cooling, they wanted it to be part of the program.
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Enter MESH Architectures, New York-based multi-disciplinary architectural practice that, in addition to residential work, designs multifamily buildings, including the first mass-timber condominium in the New York region. The firm, led by Principal Eric Liftin, designed the restoration, salvaging antique woodwork, while bringing the house up to passive-house standards. “The result is a home full of 19th-century detail that is stingy with energy use and full of fresh air,” the firm says in its project statement.
The house is large by New York City standards: a cellar plus four stories. The kitchen and dining room are located on the ground floor (English basement), leading out to a garden in the rear. The living room and library are on the parlor level, while the master bedroom and home office/guest room are located on the third floor, with four daughters in four bedrooms on the fourth. The cellar, which was previously a mechanical space, was excavated and renovated into a home gym and media room.
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Once the rooms were laid out, the house’s historic fabric was catalogued for restoration and, in some cases (doors), relocation. The design team chose fixtures that are a blend of transitional and historical, and the kitchen was designed by the architects and built by a local millworker.
“This house is an integration of old and new,” Liftin says. “It is airy and clean, and it responds directly to the needs of a modern urban family. We emphasized the social space of the kitchen/dining room/yard, while making a special effort to preserve the historical elements of the house. The house is full of recent building science technology, yet it feels like a serene, historic Harlem row house.”
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To bring the house up to Passive House standards, the team air sealed the facades and roof and added ample blown-in cellulose insulation. They specified triple-glazed, passive-house certified windows from Zola, and added an efficient electric heat pump system for heating and cooling. Additionally, an energy recovery ventilation system brings in fresh, outside air after conditioning it with the energy of the exhausted, stale air. “This all adds up to very low energy use and an exceptionally comfortable and healthy environment,” the firm says. “The owners chose not to pursue passive house certification, as it is the performance, not the certificate, that they desire.”
Historic Harlem House, the architects say, demonstrates that passive house is not only for new construction. “These renovated houses can preserve the look and feel of a classic row house, while providing healthy air, saving energy, and emitting no carbon (or other pollutants),” the firm says. “As energy generation becomes cleaner in the decades to come, houses like this one will approach a zero-emissions footprint.”
