Curtis + Ginsberg Architects Delivers Supportive, Affordable, and Retrofit Housing Built to Perform

By Jay Fox

Curtis + Ginsberg Architects (C+GA) is an award-winning, mission-driven firm based in New York City. Their work includes multifamily, mixed-use, institutional, nonprofit, and cultural projects of every scale. Founded in 1990, C+GA has built a sterling reputation based on excellence in design and an underlying philosophy that thoughtful architecture can create meaningful change for people and communities and that good architecture should be accessible to all. As a certified woman-owned business enterprise (WBE), the firm remains committed to building equitable neighborhoods and to serving their clients, their communities, and the environment in equal measure.

Pathways to equity include building with sustainability and resilience in mind. Both are central to C+GA’s work. The firm has advocated for all-electric and extremely energy-efficient buildings for years via support for Passive House building standards. More than dramatically cutting energy, these buildings deliver healthier, more comfortable homes for occupants. Working alongside clients and with agencies including the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), the firm folds energy efficiency into every stage of design, for new construction and existing buildings alike, in support of New York's broader climate and clean energy goals.

C+GA has been recognized for their work locally and nationally. They ranked among Engineering News-Record's (ENR) 2024 Top 100 Green Design Firms, and in 2021 became the first architecture firm to win the national Ivory Prize for Innovation in Sustainable Housing. The firm has signed on to the AIA 2030 Commitment and Material Pledge, and their portfolio includes more than 65 buildings completed under the Enterprise Green Communities program and more than 35 LEED and Passive House projects. These include both new construction and retrofits. Eleven projects by C+GA have been honored through NYSERDA's Buildings of Excellence (BOE) program, which prioritizes clean and resilient design in new buildings across the state. Since launching in 2019, the program has awarded $83 million to 75 projects, more than two-thirds of them serving affordable housing markets.

The Accelerator has reported on several BOE winners (see below), but the firm has far more projects in the works. Below, we’ve highlighted three recently completed or soon-to-be-completed buildings to show the range of what the firm is doing now. These include Castle III, a new building for one of New York's leading reentry organizations; HELP ONE – Building C, which represents the third phase of a campus for HELP USA, a national nonprofit that provides housing, homelessness prevention, and support services for people in crisis; and the retrofit of Whitney Young Manor in Yonkers.

Castle III rises 15 stories on East 123rd Street between Park and Lexington Avenues in East Harlem. It is C+GA's second large-scale new building for The Fortune Society, a nonprofit that supports people as they emerge from incarceration. The design draws on trauma-informed principles, healthy materials, and restorative shared spaces to support residents' mental health as they rebuild their lives. Along the south façade, masonry piers and grouped windows echo the neighborhood's historic commercial architecture, and skylights in the rear yard bring daylight down into the lower level. NYSERDA funding through the third round of the Buildings of Excellence program, which selected Castle III as a demonstration project, helped the team pursue its energy goals. The building is all-electric, designed to Passive House standards, and topped with a large solar pergola that covers the roof.

"This building will change lives and have a generational impact," said Joanne Page, The Fortune Society's president emeritus.

Building C continues a master plan C+GA drew up in 2017 for HELP ONE, HELP USA's supportive and affordable housing campus in Brooklyn. Buildings A and B opened in 2024. A fourth building will eventually complete the block around a shared recreational courtyard. Building C was awarded NYSERDA/HPD Future Housing Initiatives funding and received final Phius CORE 2021 certification in September 2026 and adds 79 units to the campus along with new community and support spaces.

Constructing the campus in phases gave the architects, owner, and construction team a chance to carry lessons forward. Building A, completed in 2024, earned a NYSERDA Buildings of Excellence award and provided proof of concept of designing a building with a high-performance envelope and centralized ERVs. Building C built on that foundation  to achieve even higher performance and the Future Housing Initiatives funding allowed for the use of CO2 based heat-pumps for electric hot-water. The final building will be entirely affordable housing, where residents can build a community with complimentary social services.

C+GA is modernizing Whitney Young Manor, a four-building affordable housing complex in Yonkers originally built in 1973, with some funding provided by NYSERDA through the Empire Building Challenge program. The complex includes two residential buildings with 195 apartments, a garage, and a daycare. The residential buildings are getting the core moves of a deep energy retrofit: EIFS overcladding, new windows, a new roof, an overhauled ventilation system, and heat pumps on a low-temperature hot water loop for heating and cooling. What sets the project apart is a wastewater heat exchange system, the firm's first.

Ng and her team will present the project at NESEA's New York conference on October 15. In a future article, we'll take a closer look at how the project came together and where it fits in the larger conversation about how New York's multifamily buildings should be heated and cooled.

About Accelerator Partners

Accelerator Partners are Passive House practitioners who share our commitment to building better, building cleaner, and sharing knowledge about Passive House methodologies with wider audiences. They allow us to reach new builders, developers, architects, and policymakers who want the benefits associated with Passive House construction (lower energy bills, a continuous supply of filtered air, more durable construction, and happier occupants!), but have yet to learn that there are passive design principles and established, performance-based building standards that can provide them.

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