Architects working on historic homes say the doors are the hardest part. An old entry door has to match what the street has seen for 150 years, and it also has to seal tightly enough for a Passive House retrofit. Few shops will take on both jobs. Oakleigh Custom Woodworks, run by Hastings and Anne Read in Mobile, Alabama, builds doors and windows for exactly these projects.
One of those projects is on Pierrepont Street in Brooklyn Heights, where a four-story multifamily building went up in 1844. When Ingui Architecture took on a deep energy retrofit there, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission required the façade to stay unchanged from the street, including a bay window above the parlor door that had deteriorated past repair. Ingui's team needed a fabricator who could reproduce the original wood detailing and hit Passive House targets, and they found Oakleigh 1,200 miles away. Oakleigh rebuilt the bay window, the parlor door, and the garden door, combining Accoya and Sapele with Alpen Thin Glass triple-pane units rated at R-15.
In this conversation, our host, Shannon Pendleton will ask Hastings and Anne how they got here and what they've learned along the way. They'll talk about why windows and doors so often decide how a finished building performs, and why the results still surprise them. They'll make the case that upgrading the houses we already have is the best way to cut housing energy use, and that historic homes are good candidates because they were built well in the first place. Hastings and Anne will also share photos from past projects, including the problems they ran into and how they solved them.
This free conversation will take place on Wednesday, October 21st at 9am PT / 12pm ET and will be followed by a lively Q+A session. Don't miss this opportunity to hear from Hastings and Anne Read and engage with the PHA community. See you there!