Based in Cold Spring, River Architects is a full-service architecture and design studio that has helped to expand passive buildings throughout the Hudson Valley and beyond. Founded by managing principal Juhee Lee-Hartford, River Architects is proud to be a New York State-certified Woman/Minority-Owned Business, as well a staple within the Passive House community. Principal and architect James Hartford founded Phius Alliance of Hudson Valley, which is now the Phius chapter for the entire state (as Phius Alliance New York).

The firm has made a lasting impression on the entire region. In the past we've touched on Seminary Hill Cidery, the world's first Passive House cidery and winner of a 2021 Metropolis Magazine Planet Positive Regional Award; the Bank Lofts, a multifamily building in Richfield Springs and recipient of a grant through the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority's Carbon Neutral Communities initiative and the Buildings of Excellence Early Design Support program; and the River Architects Studio in Cold Spring, which is a retrofit of a historic commercial building on Main Street that meets criteria for PHIUS+2015 Source Zero certification. While they are continuing to create award-winning designs, they are also expanding into new typologies that have rarely been built to Passive House standards while also helping to drive transformative change in the Hudson Valley.

We'll explore some of those novel building types below, but first we'll highlight some of the more recent and stunning single-family homes within New York that River Architects has finished.