Whitney Young Manor, New York Retrofit

Located in Yonkers, NY, Whitney Young Manor, is a notable affordable housing complex with 195 apartments across 234,000 square feet and 12 stories. Built in 1974, the housing complex is now undergoing a $22 million makeover focusing heavily on decarbonization upgrades. This renovation aims to modernize the buildings by improving insulation and introducing a new heating and cooling system that’s energy efficient. These changes are expected to lower the buildings’ carbon footprint, enhance living conditions, and reduce energy costs. The developer, Paths Development LLC, is leveraging the recapitalization cycle of the property to upgrade its infrastructure and include decarbonization measures to meet its climate goals. 

Whitney Young Manor is an aging affordable housing complex with open balconies, inefficient electric resistance baseboard heating, electric wall sleeve AC units, and gas-fired domestic hot water heaters.

The project team believes that with care, planning, and the appropriate resources, retrofitting these residential buildings can better serve tenants, deliver environmental benefits, and prove financially feasible for owners. Paths leverages the recapitalization cycle of the property to upgrade its infrastructure and include decarbonization measures to meet its climate goals.

This project prioritizes intensive load reduction through envelope improvements and hydronic distribution to improve resident comfort while reducing carbon emissions, utility spending, and maintenance costs.

Effective engineering integrates measures for reducing energy load, recovering wasted heat, and moving towards partial or full electrification. This increases operational efficiencies, optimizes energy peaks, and avoids oversized heating systems, thus alleviating space constraints and minimizing the cost of retrofits to decarbonize the building over time.