Mullet Hall – Thermal Bridge Mitigation at Slab

Posted on Apr 9, 2019
Mullet Hall – Thermal Bridge Mitigation at Slab

All too often, I am approached towards the end of the design phase of a project and asked to create an overlay scheme for energy efficiency. One of the major drawbacks of this approach is that an approach to mitigating thermal bridges must be developed very early on in a project. Just as a suspension […]

Mullet Hall – Construction Underway

Posted on Aug 21, 2018
Mullet Hall – Construction Underway

Breaking Ground On a cold February morning in 2017, we broke ground for construction at Mullet Hall. The contractor is Third Floor Corp/Doctor Structure. Having grown so accustomed to being in the forest on the land, it was hard for us to see the trees begin to come down to make room for the house. […]

Mullet Hall – LBC Materials Red List

Posted on Jul 25, 2018
Mullet Hall – LBC Materials Red List

As could have perhaps been predicted, the main “challenge” of the Living Building Challenge, particularly during construction, is the Materials Petal. In this post I will discuss the Red List Imperative of the Materials Petal. According to the International Living Futures Institute, The intent of the Materials Petal is to help create a materials economy […]

Mullet Hall – Recycled Glass Concrete Aggregate (Poraver)

Posted on May 7, 2018
Mullet Hall – Recycled Glass Concrete Aggregate (Poraver)

One of the most exciting aspects of the Mullet Hall project is one that will never be seen once it is covered with insulation and finished. About 6/7 of the fine aggregate (sand) in the wall concrete was replaced with Poraver recycled glass beads. This accomplished a few goals: Increased recycled content, reducing sand use. […]

Mullet Hall – Thermal Bridges

Posted on Apr 19, 2018
Mullet Hall – Thermal Bridges

Paying close attention to thermal bridging in the details is something that is extremely important – as important as insulation. Here is a Greenbuildingadvisor.com post describing what thermal bridging is and why it is so important. According to Wikipedia, thermal bridging is “an area or component of an object which has higher thermal conductivity than […]

Mullet Hall – Living Building Challenge – Site Petal

Posted on Apr 17, 2018
Mullet Hall – Living Building Challenge – Site Petal

Why does the Mullet Hall Project Team feel that it is appropriate to build on this greenfield site? Human Powered Living The Site is within 2km of a major train station providing access to NYC and other points along the Hudson River. This is within easy walking and/or biking distance, providing current and future owners […]

Mullet Hall – Trees Cleared for Milling

Posted on Apr 13, 2018
Mullet Hall – Trees Cleared for Milling

As part of the subdivision process, every single tree on the entire Mullet Hall property above 12″ caliper was tagged. This allowed for easily identification of trees for removal, saving, protection, and trimming. We learned that most of the trees on the property are Sugar Maple, Red Oak, and Black Locust. We learned through research […]

Window Reminiscing

Posted on Jan 29, 2018
Window Reminiscing

As we move on to a newly designed office space, we look back at a selection of our Cold Spring, NY Main St. windows over the years.

Stones and Solar Orientation

Posted on Nov 26, 2017
Stones and Solar Orientation

Stones, earth, sun, seasons. Ultimately, as they told us in art and architectural history class, all of architecture can be traced back to the primitive hut. And what direction would it make sense to orient a primitive hut? To the south, to capture the warm sunlight on cold fall and winter days. This was solar […]

Pretty Good Home Site

Posted on Aug 23, 2017
Pretty Good Home Site

So here it is. Here is where we intend to build a home. As David wrote somewhere on Green Building Advisor (or at Wolfe Island Passive House), the goal here isn’t “payback” as is so often mentioned in reference to “green building” metrics. Having been blessed with the good fortune of having the opportunity to […]