Comfortable Healthy Energy-efficient
Duncan Architect is a New York-based architecture firm focused on using our technical expertise to help you create a home for the next century, whether that's building new or keeping the historic details that make a building special.
Thinking of buying a property?
Before you buy a house or sign a design contract, find out what it would take to make it comfortable, healthy, and efficient, and whether it's worth it. We'll give you a clear picture of the costs and benefits, so you can decide with confidence.
Renovations and new homes
We design your home and stay with it from first sketch to move-in. We keep the character of your brownstone, townhouse, or Victorian, replace what's worn out, and make it warm, quiet, and healthy to live in for its next century. Passive House certification can confirm it performs as promised.
Historic and landmarked homes
We help you keep the details that make your house part of the neighborhood while making it more comfortable, healthy, and energy efficient. We handle Landmarks Preservation Commission approvals, so living in a historic district doesn't stand between you and a better, more sustainable home.
For architects, contractors, and homeowners working on single-family homes, brownstones, and small apartment buildings in New York City. You keep your project and your team; we bring the Passive House expertise.
Feasibility check
Before you buy, or before design starts. Can this building reach Passive House, and what will it take? A short report on likely targets, key risks, and the rough cost impact.
Design review
Once drawings exist. Will they work as a Passive House? A marked-up set and a priority list of fixes: insulation, airtight layer, windows, ventilation, thermal bridges, and mechanical approach.
PHPP energy model
The full model in PHPP, the standard Passive House design tool, with a results summary and recommendations to meet your targets.
Thermal bridge calculations
Psi-values and condensation risk for your details, in a report ready for NYC DOB energy code filings and for Passive House.
Email us for the one-page offer with fees, or to set up a free 20-minute call about your project.
How can you make an old house Passive in New York?
And what if it's in a historic district? A walk through the Ditmas Park retrofit.
Gregory Duncan, AIA, CPHD
Greg's interest in giving old buildings new life began in Hamburg, Germany, in 1996, on a project to transform a cold, uncomfortable office building. He returned to the U.S. for a Master of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania and moved to New York in 2000. A German blog post introduced him to Passivhaus; he went on to attend the first meeting of New York Passive House and later joined its board. In 2010 he founded Duncan Architect to design comfortable, healthy, energy-efficient buildings.
“You work with me directly, from the first site visit to the finishing touches, to give your brownstone or Victorian the new life it deserves.”
Let's talk. [email protected]