the new school honored by habitat for humanity for sustainable home design

Thursday, November 20 at 7 pm in Washington, D.C.

Solar Decathlon Winning Design Adopted for Affordable Housing Projects Nationwide

Empowerhouse in its current location in Deanwood, a neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

NEW YORK, Nov. 20, 2014-Two years after New School students designed and built an affordable, energy-efficient home for low-income families in Washington, D.C., three leaders of the project will be honored at Habitat For Humanity of Washington D.C.’s Raising The Roof celebration fundraiser on Thursday, Nov. 20.

The event at Union Station, 40 Massachusetts Ave. NE will honor Sheila Johnson, New School trustee and chair of Parsons The New School for Design's board of governors; Joel Towers, executive dean of Parsons The New School for Design; and Dee MacDonald Miller, a senior vice president in the Tenant Representation Division of Jones Lang-Lasalle.

After winning the inaugural award for affordability in the 2011 U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon, a sustainable building competition, Empowerhouse has enjoyed a second life as a real home for local families and as a model for affordable housing.

“The project was intended from the start to have a broader impact, serving as a real home for local families and as a model for affordable green housing,” said Joel Towers, Executive Dean of Parsons The New School for Design. “I want to thank our partners Habitat D.C., local government agencies and the Deanwood community for working with us to see this project to fruition.”

After the competition, while the other participating schools were dismantling their houses, the Empowerhouse team partnered with DC Habitat and the DC Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) to secure a plot of land, build the house, and find families to live in it. Empowerhouse was then moved from its display site on the National Mall to Deanwood, a neighborhood across the Anacostia River.

There, the house became a two-story, two-family duplex. The home maintained its adherence to Passive House principles, the strictest energy-use standards in the world. It requires a minimal amount of energy for heating and cooling (roughly the amount it takes to operate a hair dryer) and is equipped with solar panels to provide all its energy needs. The project has been so successful that DC Habitat already has half a dozen homes nearly completed, and The New School is pursuing a second project—this time with Habitat for Humanity of Philadelphia.

For more information on the continuation of the Empowerhouse project and design, or to speak to Parsons Executive Dean Joel Towers, students, and faculty members involved in its creation, email Scott Gargan at [email protected].

Empowerhouse is made possible in part through the support of its sponsors, which include Binational Softwood Lumber Council, District Department of the Environment, General Growth Properties Inc., Tess Dempsey Design, the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, Clune Construction, Dow Solar, MetLife Foundation, Naturally:Wood/ BC Forestry Innovation, Sheila Johnson and The Washington Mystics, the John L. Tishman Scholarships for Sustainable Development, Design and Construction, Jones Lang LaSalle, 8 x 8 Construction, Bosch, Buro Happold, Case Design Inc., Columbia Forest Product, Delta Contracting Services Inc., Dewberry, Eastern Millwork Inc., Enterprise Community Partners Inc., Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, Freestate Electrical Companies, Eck Meng Goh, Joseph R. Gromek, Huber Engineered Woods, Intus Consulting, Lowe’s, M/E Engineering P.C., Michelle Miller, National Fiber, Nordic Engineered Wood, Passive House Institute U.S., Sika Sarnafil, Valley Crest Companies, Alan Wanzenberg, Zehnder, Cefas LLC, Hafele, JBG, Kohler, My Green Neighborhood, A. Joseph Schneider, AirDye, Airgenerate, AltPower, Boswell Engineering, Humanscale, Intesis Software, Dee L. McDonald-Miller, Mitsubishi Electric, N.E.W, Perkins + Will, Robert Bilicki, Scholes Electric & Communications, SCL Elements, SIGA, T.A.C. Ceramic Tile, Tyco, Viega, and Zavos Architecture+Design.

Parsons The New School for Design and the Milano School of International Affairs, Management and Urban Policy are vital parts of The New School, a university with a legacy of progressive ideals, scholarship, and pedagogy. One of world's leading schools of art and design education, Parsons offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in the full spectrum of disciplines, creatively and critically addressing the complexities of life in the 21st century. Milano trains leaders for the nonprofit, public, and private sectors, blending theory with hands-on practice, and progressive thinking with social commitment. For more information visit www.newschool.edu.

Founded in 1870, Stevens Institute of Technology, The Innovation University TM, lives at the intersection of industry, academics and research. The University's students, faculty and partners leverage their collective real-world experience and culture of innovation, research and entrepreneurship to confront global challenges in engineering, science, systems and technology management. Stevens offers baccalaureate, master’s, certificates and doctoral degrees in engineering, the sciences and management, in addition to baccalaureate degrees in business and liberal arts. For more information visit www.stevens.edu.

Habitat for Humanity of Washington, D.C. believes that everyone deserves a house they want to call home. That's why we work to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness in the nation's capital by building affordable, energy- and resource-efficient homes for people in need. DC Habitat builds and rehabilitates homes in order to sell them to families who are ineligible for conventional financing. For more information, visit www.dchabitat.org.

The D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development creates and preserves opportunities for affordable housing and economic development and to revitalize underserved communities in the District of Columbia. The department fulfills its mission by providing gap financing; increasing first-time homeownership opportunities; providing funding to rehabilitate single-family and multi-family homes; supporting communities through neighborhood based activities; providing funding for homelessness prevention; addressing vacant and abandoned properties; and overseeing the administration of rental housing laws. For more information, visit www.dhcd.dc.gov.

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Media Contact:

Scott Gargan
212-229-5667 x3794
[email protected]