The Carbon Neutral Retrofit

SUSTAINABLE by DESIGN

Our architecture + design team’s carbon-neutral retrofit strategy for THE BANK LOFTS is Phius Certified to meet locally tailored passive design standards.

Here’s what that means for the building’s owners, occupants, community, and climate.

“From the start, we wanted to make THE BANK LOFTS as “green” as possible, for the health of its occupants and for the health of the planet. We are grateful for our team’s shared commitment—and overwhelmed by the Otsego County community’s encouragement and support of this project. This is how change happens!”

—THE BANK LOFTS owner/developers Faith E. Gay and Francesca Zambello, of Dooalot, LLC

THE OWNERS’ VISION: Transform an Old Bank Into a Community Asset

Faith E. Gay and Francesca Zambello, the partners in business and life behind Dooalot, LLC, had lived and worked in Otsego County for more than a decade when they spotted a “For Sale” sign outside the vacant, three-story brick building that people who grew up in Richfield Springs, New York, still call “the old bank.” Situated in the heart of the village’s downtown commercial corridor, the 1880s First National Bank building was by 2021 a skeleton of its former self, stripped of dignity by decades of neglect and soon destined for the auction block or wrecker’s ball.

Vacant for decades, the interior had been gutted to its timber frame during an early-2000s renovation attempt that never advanced past the demolition stage. Inside the brick-veneered building shell, amid the rubble from the abruptly halted renovation, Faith and Francesca found the ghosts of the bank’s elegant Edwardian-era interior and the inspiration for a carbon-neutral adaptive reuse project they believed could bring new life to a historic Central New York community ripe for a renaissance.

What if they could save the building—strategically and sustainably? The restored structure could provide long-term, loft-style rental apartments that could attract a new generation of residents and help ease the region’s housing crunch. And the ground-floor commercial space could help reactivate the historic heart of Main Street with fresh energy and stimulate job opportunities. Dooalot. LLC, believed the project could be transformative.

And they were right: Today, THE BANK LOFTS—meticulously retrofit to Phius Core 2021+ standards—is once again a vital part of this New York community and a model for carbon-neutral revitalization of heritage buildings on historic Main Streets throughout the country.

THE AWARD-WINNING DESIGN

by RIVER ARCHITECTS, PLLC

  • River Architects’ carbon-neutral adaptive-reuse plan for THE BANK LOFTS is a winner of NYSERDA’s Buildings of Excellence Competition (Round 3, Early Stage Design component), which awards architecture teams that advance multifamily building design in order to meet or exceed future code requirements, achieve high performance, and maximize occupant health and comfort with zero on-site fossil fuel combustion.

  • In 2022, THE BANK LOFTS project earned recognition and support from the New York Department of State and NYSERDA’s Carbon Neutral Community Economic Development initiative, dedicated to accelerating climate-smart economic growth that benefits culturally rich New York neighborhoods like the historic Village of Richfield Springs, in Central New York.

    LEARN MORE about the ways NYSERDA supports New Yorkers’ goals to increase energy efficiency, save money, use renewable energy, and reduce reliance on fossil fuels at nyserda.ny.gov

The Passive Standard Advantage

  • "Our team’s success creating a Phius-certified multifamily in the Village of Cooperstown in 2022 convinced us that passive buildings are not just better for the environment—they are cleaner, quieter, more comfortable to be in, and more efficient to operate. Once I experienced the difference myself, I wondered, 'Why doesn’t everyone build this way?' ”

    —FRANCESCA ZAMBELLO, PARTNER, DOOALOT, LLC

  • “It is the design challenge of our time—and our shared responsibility to future generations—to make all buildings clean, sound, and healthy to live in. In the Northeast, where so much of our stock predates 1980, retrofitting existing buildings to carbon neutrality and reducing our dependency on fossil fuels is the next wave of architecture."

    —JUHEE LEE-HARTFORD, ARCHITECT, MANAGING PARTNER, RIVER ARCHITECTS, PLLC

  • "At Simple Integrity, we're often asked if it is more expensive to build a high-performance home like a passive house. Yes and no. Initially it adds about 2–7% to build cost. Our projects average 3%. The other side of the equation is that most projects have a 4- to 7-year recoup. The larger the house, generally the quicker the recoup."

    —JOSH EDMONDS, BUILDER, PRINCIPAL, SIMPLE INTEGRITY, LLC

Superior Indoor Air Quality

A Phius-certified building is a healthier building. With zero on-site combustion of fossil fuels; continuously vented and filtered air; and an airtight envelope that minimizes moisture penetration and exposure to allergens, mold, insect penetration, and other environmental contaminants, occupants will breathe cleaner air all year-round.

Quiet

The Phius Alliance compares the experience of being in a passive building to “driving a luxury car: outside noise is virtually nonexistent.” Even in a lively downtown neighborhood, a passive building’s super-insulated envelope buffers interior spaces from street noise.

Beauty + Comfort

Living in a passive building feels good. The airtight building envelope eliminates the drafts, mustiness, and wildly fluctuating indoor temperatures old buildings are infamous for. Fresh air is continuously filtered in; stale air and odors are filtered out.

By design, a building retrofit to Phius standards will be warmer inside when it's cold outside, and cooler inside when it's hot outside than a conventionally constructed building. Temperature variance is narrow (even near doors and windows), and the continuous air filtration and ventilation provides superior indoor air quality and comfort.

All-Electric Appliances

Each rental apartment is fitted with a suite of all-electric kitchen appliances. SANCO2 heat pump water heaters, which use CO2 as a refrigerant, are estimated to be four to five times more efficient than traditional electric water heaters. Each unit also comes with its own front-loading washer + heat-pump condensing dryer, already installed.

THE DESIGN GOALS

The Bank Lofts preserves local heritage while providing safe, clean, comfortable living/working spaces for a new generation of Otsego County residents and visitors.

THE BANK LOFTS is a big, beautiful, 14,750+-square-foot building retrofit to reduce the amount of energy needed to out-perform conventionally designed buildings.

River Architects, PLLC’s bold adaptive reuse plan pays back in the amenities rental apartment seekers most need and want—resulting in favorable long-term rental conditions for residents and building owner.

  • Restore structural integrity and functionality

  • Reimagine the interior spaces, applying rigorous passive design standards of energy-efficiency, safety, climate-resilience, and everyday comfort

  • Revive beauty and reinvigorate community spirit and the economic potential of our historic downtown commercial corridor.

The plan’s meticulous attention to detail covers every aspect of design—from the precisely fit and historically trimmed-out triple-pane tilt-and-turn windows to the low-VOC paints, moisture barriers, and sealing and insulation materials.

Listed here are but a few of the building’s key carbon-neutral considerations.

Built to Last

Passive buildings are designed and constructed to endure. Phius-certified buildings have proven resilient in the face of natural disasters, such as wildfire smoke and extreme heat and cold events. Even in a power outage, a passive building’s super-insulated, airtight envelope can keep building occupants feeling comfortable indoors days longer than a conventional building. For peace of mind in emergencies, a photovoltaic (PV) system combined with battery backup will support essential functions during power outages.

Provide EV-Charging Stations + Solar Array

THE BANK LOFTS resident parking lot includes four spots with access to EV-charging stations for tenants’ use.

“Waste Not”: Embodied Carbon Emissions

By retrofitting our 140-year-old building to passive building standard rather than demolishing it, carting away the rubble, and rebuilding from the ground up, we succeeded in minimizing operational carbon emissions (the carbon expended to run the building) and in dramatically reducing embodied carbon emissions (the amount of CO2 and CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions) used to source, produce, transport, install, finish, embellish, and maintain the materials create and maintain the building over its lifetime.

THE BANK LOFTS design preserves every possible brick, brass embellishment, period molding, door transom, mosaic tile, marble slab—even the former bank’s approximately 112-ton, walk-in, concrete and steel vault. Our team’s respect for the labors of past generations eliminated countless trips to the landfill while preserving elements meaningful to our community’s 19th-century heritage.