Project of the Month: Passive House Renovation of a One Million+ SF Commercial Building | PHA Live!

As part of Retrofit Month, this Project of the Month session explores one of the most ambitious Passive House feasibility studies in the United States, a 1.3 million-square-foot Government Services Administration (GSA) building located near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. The team will unpack the complexity of renovating a large-scale, federally owned building to EnerPHit standards, exploring how changing use and form factor, ballistic glass requirements, hygrothermal analysis, wall thickness, and energy source considerations informed their approach. They’ll also discuss the challenges of justifying a deep Passive House retrofit for a building owned and paid for by the American people.

What attendees will learn:

-How modeling metrics guided design choices to achieve EnerPHit-level performance.

-Strategies for tackling large, existing buildings under PHI EnerPHit or Phius Revive standards.

-How to communicate and build buy-in for deep retrofit projects within complex ownership and funding structures.

Speakers: Beth Eckenrode, Founder, AUROS GroupBeth will set the context for the session, framing the significance of this project and how it fits within the broader story of existing building transformation. As founder of AUROS Group, Beth has guided the firm’s path to global thought leadership in building and data science, with four patents relating to data science in the built environment.

Jonathan Stern, Senior Advisor, Cornerstone Real Estate ConsultingJonathan brings over 20 years of experience in real estate finance, development, and strategic planning, including his role managing a 10 million-square-foot institutional real estate portfolio with the GSA. Matt Bowers, Director of Building Science, AUROS GroupMatt is a PHI-accredited Certifier and Certified Passive House Designer who has guided over 100 high-performance projects, from small multifamily buildings to 1 million+ square-foot commercial decarbonization plans.

✨ Bonus: Continue the conversation inside the Reimagine Buildings Collective, our community platform where practitioners share resources, host AMAs, and collaborate year-round. Join here: https://collective.reimaginebuildings