Myers-Heckman Residence Receives USGBC Ohio Green Building of the Year Award

We are thrilled to announce that the Myers-Heckman Residence in Cincinnati has won the 2021 Ohio USGBC Leadership Award for Green Building of the Year in the Homes category. Sol design + consulting provided architectural design, energy modeling, and LEED certification services for the project.

"We are honored to receive this Green Building of the Year Award," said Sanyog Rathod, President and CEO of Sol design + consulting. "The project is an inspiring example of urban core revitalization. Just a decade ago, this 1870s historic building sat vacant in a blighted neighborhood. Today, it's a beautifully renovated LEED Platinum home for a family of four."

The Myers-Heckman Residence is a LEED Platinum renovation, deep energy retrofit, and addition to an 1870 townhouse in Cincinnati’s historic Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. Its historic status was a key driving force behind the design. The design sought to respect the historic architecture while allowing the addition and new interventions to be distinctly contemporary -- all while significantly upgrading the performance of the home.

The retrofit utilized best-practice techniques for insinuating the existing masonry building, including continuous rigid insulation on the walls, careful air sealing to minimize infiltration, R-50 insulation in the roof, and new high-performance windows. Window trim, baseboards, and wainscoting were removed, restored, and reinstalled, making the insulation imperceptible.

Other sustainable design features include a 9.9kW solar array, geothermal heating and cooling, energy recovery ventilation, and a rainwater collection and reuse system that captures 65% of runoff from the roof.

"We would not be celebrating this project if it wasn't for the owners, Kristen Myers and Chris Heckman, and their relentless commitment to historic preservation and Net Zero buildings," said Rathod. "We shared a common vision with them of reaching a carbon-neutral future by restoring our historic urban core and re-using the embodied energy of existing buildings."

You can learn more about the project here.