At the Red Willow Apartments in Seattle, Passive House consultant and project manager Dan Whitmore made a deliberate bet: skip the continuous exterior insulation, invest in high-performance windows, and crank the airtightness knob instead. In this video, Dan and Skylar Swinford walk through every layer of the building envelope—from the underslab vapor barrier to the wall-to-roof air barrier transition—showing exactly how the details connect and where the tricky parts live. You'll see how a 2x8 wood-framed wall with fluffy insulation, a fully-adhered membrane air barrier, and Euroline triple-pane windows can hit Passive House performance without foam wrapping the exterior. The project is also a case study in sequencing: framing the building before pouring the slab, coordinating dry days for membrane installation in Seattle's relentless January drizzle, and protecting the air barrier from damage by subsequent trades. If you've ever wondered what it actually looks like to thread the needle between buildability, budget, and high performance on a 12-unit multifamily project, this is the walk-through to watch.
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