Apartments Use Continuous Insulation for Green Energy Standards
Minnesota is taking exciting steps toward green energy standards. The state’s first-ever Passive House multifamily development, the Hook and Ladder Apartments, opened October 2019 in Northeast Minneapolis. While impressive in its own right, the work-force priced complex is garnering attention for more than its stature as a statewide first. The project is set to prove just how much of a difference Passive House construction can make in operations cost and occupant comfort compared to buildings designed to conventional energy codes.
To create a real-time project demonstration, LHB Architects designed the Hook and Ladder complex as a side-by-side experiment with two adjoined, nearly identical apartment buildings. One set of the look-alike apartment complexes is built to state energy code specifications, the other to the Passive House Institute U.S (PHIUS) 2015 standard.