September Forum - Sustainable Affordable Housing Rehabilitation

Most of New York City’s affordable housing stock was constructed over thirty years ago, before better insulated, ventilated, and resilient buildings became a requirement. Other city properties may date back a hundred years or more and are subject to incomplete renovations. Compounded by sometimes inadequate maintenance and lack of funding, many of these properties are in need of significant rehabilitation. Additionally, given the economic challenges that many affordable housing tenants face, reducing energy expenses is of high significance. There is an imperative need to rehabilitate these buildings for better energy efficiency, indoor environmental quality, resiliency, and affordability.

In this month's Forum, we'll discuss the unique New York City challenge of sustainable affordable housing rehabilitation. Our speakers will share their experiences in meeting this challenge, from making the rehabilitation feasible, designing it, and then demonstrating results.

Speakers include the developer and sustainability consultant for the Randolph Houses, an extensive rehabilitation of 22 historic tenement buildings in Harlem, resulting in 147 newly renovated public housing units and 20 affordable housing units.

DATE: Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Time: 6:30 – 8:00pm
Location: Trespa Design Center, 62 Greene St, New York, NY 10012

SPEAKERS:

Christoph Stump - Vice President of Design and Construction at Trinity Financial

Sofia Palha de Melo - Senior Energy Engineer at Steven Winter Associates

Andrea Mancino - Project Manager at Bright Power, Inc.

Jaime Alvarez - Project Manager at Paul A. Castrucci, Architect

Christoph Stump - Vice President of Design and Construction at Trinity Financial

Mr. Stump currently manages due diligence, permitting and construction aspects of 3160 Park Avenue and 425 Grand Concourse in the Bronx as well as the second phase of Randolph Houses in Manhattan. Additionally, he provides technical assistance for prospecting. With over 10 years of experience in the design and development of mixed-use affordable housing projects in the metropolitan New York area, Mr. Stump is a registered architect with a focus on energy-efficiency and accessibility and holds a Master’s-equivalent degree from the Technical University of Berlin, Germany.

Sofia Palha de Melo - Senior Energy Engineer at Steven Winter Associates

Ms. Melo is a Senior Energy Engineer at SWA working in sustainability and energy consulting for multifamily buildings. She specializes in high-performance buildings and optimization and how that impacts cost and energy usage through the life-cycle of the building. At SWA, Ms. Melo works directly as a project manager supervising a team of energy engineers and consultants to support multifamily new development and major renovation projects on their sustainability and energy efficiency initiatives and associated certifications. Some of the programs that Ms. Melo works more directly and has completed several successful projects: NYSERDA Multifamily Performance Program for New Construction (MPP), EPA Multifamily High-Rise Program, Enterprise Green Communities, LEED® for Homes™.

Andrea Mancino - Project Manager at Bright Power, Inc.

As a member of the new construction & sustainability group, Andrea is involved in all facets of a building's life, from design through construction. Her day to day activities involve working with developers, architects, engineers and contractors to optimize energy efficiency and sustainability for ground-up new construction projects, as well as affordable housing rehabilitations. Additionally, Andrea also oversees the new construction commissioning service at Bright Power. Ultimately, Andrea's mission is to continuously improve the standard of energy efficiency and sustainability best practices in the development, design and construction industries.

Jaime Alvarez - Project Manager at Paul A. Castrucci, Architect: A Certified Passive House Design Firm

Mr. Alvarez is a project manager with the architecture firm of Paul A. Castrucci. Since joining the office he has been working on the complete gut rehabilitation of two East Village tenement buildings, affordable housing designed to the Enerphit standard, the Passive House benchmark for building renovations. He has overseen these projects from the design to the current construction stage, always advocating to preserve all designed energy efficiency measures. He also manages LEED and Enterprise Green Communities certification where required. Mr. Alvarez has over seven years experience in architecture and sustainability consulting, a Master of Architecture and Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering.