A brief, 1.5‑hour train ride north of New York City’s Grand Central Station sits the bucolic village of Cold Spring, NY. Part of the charm of Cold Spring is its historic Main Street and nineteenth-century homes set among the rolling hills of the Hudson Highlands. One such home is a timber-framed structure that dates back to 1870 and has served as a hot dog stand, a real estate office, a candy shop, a “Chinese” laundry, and a farrier’s shop.
This structure is PHIUS certified Passive House that serves as the design studio for Juhee Lee-Hartford and James Hartford of River Architects. In this video, the two discuss the challenges they faced when retrofitting the building, including how they preserved many of the original design features and even the original foundation.