Four new affordable Lower East Side People's Mutual Housing Association apartment buildings designed by Chris Benedict RA and Henry Gifford are on East 3rd Street between Avenues A and D.
While being affordable, these apartment buildings are equipped in a way to achieve extreme energy efficiency. Instead of the usual energy efficiency achieved by using new and fancy technologies, they use normal materials with a better design. As a result they have created the first energy efficient buildings for the same costs as those for regular construction. Proponents of Passive House architecure, this practice focuses on affordable housing, as described in this Sallan Foundation article.
