Jennings Hall at 819 Grand: Passive House Senior Living

The expansion creates a unified “campus-style” environment serving 350 senior residents when combined with the existing Jennings Hall community.

High-Performance Envelope

• Thermal performance: R-16.9 (assembly)
• Material palette: Thin brick + aluminum + fiber cement cladding

Unitized fabrication helps lock in repeatable quality—critical for Passive House–aligned performance targets.

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This project shows how high-performance envelope design can scale for affordable housing—delivering a healthier, quieter, more efficient building without sacrificing constructability or schedule certainty in a dense NYC context.

Built for NYC Constraints

Off-site fabrication and unitized installation supported faster enclosure with less on-site congestion—well suited to tight staging conditions near active transit and an occupied campus environment.

Interesting facts to include (choose 1–2):

• Less staging + less waste: Off-site production minimizes on-site scrap and material storage needs.
• Safer, smaller crews: Reduced on-site labor exposure compared with traditional stick-built façade workflows.
• Schedule predictability: More work completed in controlled conditions before panels arrive on-site.

Campus Connection & Resident Experience

Designed as an adjacent expansion that connects directly to Jennings Hall, strengthening the existing senior housing campus with supportive services, amenities, and improved streetscape activation.

The project reinforces a “connected campus” model—bringing daily services and community spaces closer to residents.

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