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A plan to upgrade a cluster of nine unremarkable apartment buildings in Brooklyn typically would not merit a second look. But this isn’t a quick fix; the project, called Casa Pasiva, aims to be a new model for the sustainable transformation of the city’s housing stock.
Sleek new skyscrapers that incorporate the latest energy-efficient building materials like mass timber may look impressive, but when it comes to solving the climate crisis in New York, the real challenge lies in the city’s decades-old structures.
More than 90% of the buildings in New York today will still be standing in 2050, and nearly 70% of the city’s total carbon emissions come from buildings. Taken together, these facts suggest that the fate of those nine nondescript Brooklyn buildings, and others like them, is essential to cutting emissions.
New Yorkâs Real Climate Challenge: Fixing Its Aging Buildings
Nearly 70 percent of the cityâs total carbon emissions come from buildings. A project to retrofit nine buildings with green technology is pioneering a new solution.
The Casa Pasiva retrofit project is the first of its kind in New York. The city and New York State have zeroed in on buildings in pursuit of meaningful cuts to carbon.Credit.John Muggenborg for The New York Times
By Patrick Sisson
Dec. 29, 2020
A plan to upgrade a cluster of nine unremarkable apartment buildings in Brooklyn typically would not merit a second look. But this isnât a quick fix; the project, called Casa Pasiva, aims to be a new model for the sustainable transformation of the cityâs housing stock.