WINDOWS APPROVED!
Today, we won unanimous approval for our Optiwin (fixed upper and offset lower tilt and turn sash) windows from the Landmark Commission! It is nice to know that we have a very thoughtful group of Board members running Landmarks for NYC at this time. David White and I presented the window drawings as well as described the Passive House standard. The Board seemed to be very excited about the idea. One of the members said that he especially liked that one of the first Passive Houses would be in a Landmark district because it spoke to preservation and sustainability working together. The Board stated that because we were going to such great lengths to match the outward appearance of the windows, they felt the different operation was of little consequence. We donated one of the Passive House books to Landmarks to be passed around among the staff and feel that we have made a great victory today in raising awareness about Passive House. Hopefully with this decision the next Passive House in a Landmark district will be able to gain approvals at the staff level or have a similarly fast Landmark Board process.
Moving forward, we are going to start working with Stephan Tanner to have the Optiwin windows customized for the exact window openings and will hopefully be ordering them by the beginning of next week. We expect the windows to arrive in February, if everything goes well. This is later than we wanted the windows, but today, I am not complaining. Thanks to those who helped us with our presentation and to Laura Briggs (fellow Passive House Consultant) who showed up to advocate for the project.
That is awesome - Congrats!
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