Dattner Architects is proud to announce that Vital Brookdale is a recipient of a 2023 AIA New York State Excelsior Award! This prestigious award recognizes a project’s overall performance, design excellence, and impact on the community — all within the context of a publicly funded project.
“It is an honor for our Vital Brookdale project to be recognized as a recipient of the 2023 AIA New York State Excelsior Award. Offering community-based healthcare, supportive services, and sustainable and modern features, Vital Brookdale has created a new standard for the future of affordable housing developments. Thank you to AIA, the Brooklyn community, the State, and all of our incredible partners for making this possible.” — Michael T. Rooney, Founding Principal, MDG Design + Construction
Vital Brookdale is located on a unique site that was originally an ineffectively-used surface parking lot for an adjacent hospital. Through an innovative public-private partnership, the site was transformed, creating 160 units of affordable housing and 25,000 square feet of health-focused community space in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn.
“Vital Brookdale is a successful example of how Passive House can be incorporated into our existing affordable housing framework in NYC. As the first project to be completed as part of NYS’ Vital Initiative, it’s been gratifying to work on a project that highlights health and wellness as just as critical to sustainability as energy efficiency. Construction started in April 2020, and it was a true team effort to get this project completed while navigating how to build a Passive House project when most people were working from home. We’re glad to see our collective hard work, the mission of the project, and the overall design, recognized by AIA NYS.” — Shefali Sanghvi AIA, Director of Sustainability, Dattner Architects
This Passive House project has a 100kW roof-mounted solar photovoltaic system, green roof, high-performance mechanical systems, insulation and windows, LED lighting, low-flow water fixtures, and several other energy-efficient measures to ensure the comfort and affordability for residents as well as sustainability of the building. The design team also carefully selected interior materials while keeping in mind the ease of install, cost of material, maintenance, and impact on resident health. The end result is a project that is a model of affordable, community-based, sustainable multifamily housing in New York City.
“Smith & Henzy is proud to be a member of the amazing team of professionals that came together to make Vital Brookdale a leading example of affordable sustainable development in New York. We wish to commend Dattner Architects for their innovative design and vision for this project.” — Timothy Henzy, Principal, Smith & Henzy
