Steven Winter Associates

If you work on affordable housing projects, take a pause and register now! SWA's Emily Giang will join this Enterprise Community Partners webinar to discuss the new Materials Screening and Selection Verification Template, an Excel-based tool developed by our firm. We're also looking forward to hearing from Elizabeth Horen Geisler, Sarah Santiago-Cok, and Kayli Skinner! 🙌 Save your spot by registering at the link below. 👇

Heading to #Greenbuild this year? On Monday and Friday of Greenbuild week, register for behind-the-scenes tours of some iconic sustainable sites in New York City. We're especially excited about these two tours of projects we've supported: 🏙️ 425 Grand Concourse, Bronx Monday, October 19, 8am-12pm A Passive House mixed-use, mixed-income development featuring 277 affordable housing units, community-serving retail, healthcare, and educational spaces. 🏫 NYU Rubin Hall, Manhattan Friday, October 23, 1-3pm An award-winning decarbonization project demonstrating how existing buildings can reduce emissions while continuing to serve occupants. Tours can be added to any Greenbuild pass. We'll see you out there! Browse all project tours: https://lnkd.in/gANQ3QfE Register for Greenbuild: https://lnkd.in/eY7k44C3 Use code SWAEXPO to receive an unlimited attendee expo pass for $59. #Greenbuild #PassiveHouse #BuildingPerformance #AffordableHousing #Decarbonization #Sustainability

Our special-edition WinterGreen newsletter celebrating Disability Pride Month is hot off the (virtual) presses! 🗞️ Our leading stories highlight different aspects of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and accessible design: 🔸 How Pregnancy Further Reveals the Impact of Well-Designed Accessible Healthcare Spaces Some of our accessibility consultants spend their careers evaluating how healthcare environments affect patients. In this edition of our "Trends in Healthcare" blog series, SWA's Jennifer Low, EDAC shares a personal reflection on how pregnancy gave her an even deeper understanding of the critical role healthcare facility design plays in supporting access to care.   This piece examines how accessible healthcare design can support patient safety, reduce stress, and improve the overall care experience during pregnancy and for many others navigating the healthcare system. 🔸 Accessibility Litigation Prevention: The Rules for Commercial Buildings that Predate the ADA Building owners and operators might assume that if their facilities were built before 1992, they are exempt from Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements and protected from accessibility litigation. In reality, many places of public accommodation have ongoing obligations to remove barriers to access where doing so is readily achievable. In this new blog post, SWA's Managing Director of Accessibility Services, Peter A. Stratton, explains how the ADA applies to older properties and how owners can reduce litigation risk. Thank you to SWA's Accessibility Team for all that you do—that includes creating resources for everyone to learn more about accessible design and laws like the ADA! Read WinterGreen on LinkedIn and subscribe below 👇 Sign up to get WinterGreen via email by visiting our Knowledge Hub: swinter.com/knowledge-hub/

Happy Disability Pride Month and happy anniversary to the ADA! ♿ July 26, 2026 marks the 36th anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA is a federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability and declares that people with disabilities must have equal access to all areas of public life, including employment, public services, public accommodations, and telecommunications. As per SWA tradition... it's quiz time! Though our quiz is just for fun, it's a reminder that knowledge is power. It's important to reflect on why this law exists and understand how to apply the technical standards to different spaces. Complying with the ADA helps ensure that we're removing barriers for people with disabilities and creating a built environment that everyone can access. Take our quiz below 👇 and stay informed. 💪 Need a hint? We’ll share some resources in the comments.

When we talk to multifamily project teams about the Passive House Institute's Low Energy Building (PHI LEB) standard, we get a lot of the same questions. So we sat down to answer them in-depth in our latest blog post. Here's the deal: ✔️ PHI LEB maintains the core principles and performance outcomes that define Passive House. ✔️ It provides additional flexibility through modestly adjusted performance thresholds. ❌ PHI LEB does not abandon the core Passive House design approach. ❌ It is NOT "Passive House Lite." We’ve found that PHI LEB can open the door to certification for more multifamily buildings and across residential portfolios, and we want to make sure developers, owners, and design teams understand their options. Swipe through for the highlights and read the full blog post here: https://lnkd.in/eKbrUZ64 #PassiveHouse #LowEnergyBuildings #MultifamilyBuildings

Last chance to register! Join us on Thursday, July 16 for the DC Sustainable Energy Utility (DCSEU) Train Green Heat Pump webinar presented by SWA's Robb Aldrich. As heat pump adoption accelerates, we don’t need more systems that only perform well under ideal conditions. We need systems designed for long-term efficiency, reliability during extreme weather, and grid resilience. 💪 THE DETAILS ⏰ Thursday, July 16 at 11am Eastern Time 🔴 Register here: https://bit.ly/4w1DtW1 (Teams webinar) 🎓 Earn CEUs: 2 AIA / 2 BPI 📝 Learning Objectives: Evaluate Needs - Evaluate load requirements for buildings for both space conditioning and domestic hot water. Design and Selection - Design systems and select appropriate equipment to optimize performance and streamline operation and maintenance. Performance Optimization - Maximize energy efficiency, occupant comfort, and long-term cost-effectiveness. Analysis - Compare advantages and operational limits of diverse technologies, including split systems, VRF, packaged units, and other air-source heat pumps.

We’re proud to be an Industry Supporter for this year’s Greenbuild International Conference & Expo! 🏙️ Greenbuild is especially meaningful to us at SWA because it's part of our company history. Our founder, Steven Winter, helped establish the conference during his time as Chair of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) from 1999-2003. The first Greenbuild was held in Austin, TX in 2002 and brought together practitioners working to advance sustainability in the built environment. Today, Greenbuild is the largest annual gathering of green building professionals in the world with: 10,000+ attendees 250+ exhibiting companies 60+ countries represented For us, Greenbuild is about collaboration and knowledge sharing. There’s incredible value in coming together as an industry each year to exchange ideas, learn from one another, and push our work forward. Collaboration is how we shape the future of our industry! We’re thrilled that this year, Greenbuild returns to New York City—home to some of the most ambitious high-performance new construction and deep energy retrofit work happening today. 🌳 Greenbuild 2026 📍 Javits Center, New York, NY 📅 October 20-23 👉 Register here: https://lnkd.in/eY7k44C3 Use our code SWAEXPO for discounted Expo Hall Passes ($59). We look forward to seeing you in October! #Greenbuild #BuiltEnvironment #SustainableBuildings

Can Passive House make sense for more projects than you think? When Northland Newton Development (recently renamed the Pattern District) in Massachusetts first committed to Passive House certification, the plan included three buildings. Through the strategic use of the Passive House Institute Low Energy Building (LEB) standard, that commitment expanded to nine buildings, representing more than 800 apartments and over 1 million square feet of high-performance construction. On July 15, SWA's Dylan Martello will present "Scaling Sustainability with PHI LEB" at the Northeast Passive House (NEPH) virtual chapter meeting. Starting with Northland Newton as a case study, you'll learn how PHI LEB can help project teams optimize costs, maintain the core benefits of Passive House design, and bring high-performance building strategies to more projects. 🔴 Register here: https://bit.ly/44T13sm Wednesday, July 15 Noon ET Virtual All are welcome! Please share with others who may be interested. #PassiveHouse #BuildingPerformance #MultifamilyBuildings

Extreme weather, like this week's heat wave, is a stress test for heat pump systems. Performance during these conditions depends on much more than equipment selection. It depends on design decisions made long before installation... - Evaluating loads for both space conditioning and domestic hot water - Selecting and designing systems for real operating conditions - Understanding the tradeoffs between technologies (VRF, split systems, packaged units) - Optimizing for efficiency, comfort, and long-term performance If you're ready to learn more... Join us on Thursday, July 16 at 11am for a DC Sustainable Energy Utility (DCSEU) Train Green webinar all about high-performance heat pump systems. This session is free for those who live or work in Washington, DC. 🔴 Register here: https://bit.ly/4w1DtW1 🎓 Earn CEUs: 2 AIA / 2 BPI Using real-world examples and data, instructor Robb Aldrich, Principal Mechanical Engineer at SWA, will cover system design, performance considerations, and integration across residential and commercial building types. As heat pump adoption accelerates, we don’t need more systems that only perform well under ideal conditions. We need systems designed for long-term efficiency, reliability during extreme weather, and grid resilience! #HeatPumps #BuildingPerformance #Electrification #WashingtonDC

Inside this edition of our 🌿WinterGreen newsletter... 🔸 Heat Pump Water Heaters in Apartments: Yes, They Can Work Well Heat pump water heaters don’t always have the best track record in multifamily, but is that a technology problem or a design problem? In a project funded by the US Department of Energy Building Technologies Office, SWA found that integrated systems delivered strong performance, minimal HVAC impacts, and virtually no resident complaints when thoughtfully designed. Explore what makes these systems work and where caution is still needed. Thank you Robb Aldrich for the great takeaways! 🔸 Debunking the Costs of Energy Code Compliance in Massachusetts: Construction and Delivery When projects move from design into construction, the cost conversation doesn’t get simpler—it gets less precise. Construction-phase cost pressure is rarely caused by a single requirement. It emerges from how design decisions, procurement timing, trade coordination, and field execution interact under real project conditions.   This second post in our Codes + Costs blog series looks at the construction and delivery phase, where cost risk becomes real. Thank you Stephen Moore - aAIA, CPHC®, LEED AP for this great article! Read WinterGreen on LinkedIn and subscribe below 👇 Sign up to get WinterGreen via email by visiting our Knowledge Hub: swinter.com/knowledge-hub/