Jenny Peysin of Jenny Peysin Architecture | Wilderness Drive in East Jewett | Finding Refuge in Vacation Homes
Courtesy of Jenny Peysin Architecture
Finding Refuge in Vacation Homes
Whether it’s called a shore house, weekend home or cottage, the concept remains the same: escape from the city. The cultural phenomenon of staying at a non-primary residence during the summer is especially pervasive in New York City. In this episode, I look into the history of vacation homes in the tri-state area and how the current work-from-home culture impacts these communities. I also revisit a conversation with architect Jenny Peysin to discuss the Passive House movement and learn about her unique build in the Catskill region of upstate New York.
Wilderness Drive in East Jewett is located near Hunter Mountain on a 5-acre lot. It’s a single-story, modern bungalow featuring two wings with five bedrooms and three baths. Central to the tenets of Passive Houses, the build has more insulation, minimalized thermal bridging, and an airtight envelope, all of which ensure a comfortable temperature throughout.
In our conversation, Jenny walks us through her initial vision for this build as a client project and how it turned into a personal vacation home instead. We also dive into the history of Passive Houses, LEED vs. Passive House building criteria, and why they make great second homes for families.
“During the pandemic, there was a rush for homes outside of New York City, and particularly larger homes than before. That was because of the ubiquity of work-from-home. With the increased demand, home prices went up. Original year-round residents, including those in essential services like public safety and construction, those in the foodservice industry and those in the agricultural industry, often found it harder to stay put. ”
Courtesy of Jenny Peysin Architecture
About Jenny Peysin
Jenny Peysin is a licensed architect based in Brooklyn. She founded Jenny Peysin Architecture in 2016. She previously worked as a designer at Blaze Makoid Architecture. She became a Certified Passive House Designer right before the pandemic and has been shifting her focus toward this way of designing and building.
Courtesy of Jenny Peysin Architecture
Episode Timestamps
2:26 – The history of vacation homes in the greater New York City area, the role they played in the pandemic, and the new businesses growing to serve this market.
7:10 – When did you know that you were ready to start your own business? And how did you go about doing that?
8:59 – One that we will be focusing on today is the Wilderness Drive project in Green county in the Catskills. Could you tell us the particulars about the area and the project site itself?
11:09 – The site itself is five acres. And is it flat or sloped? Is it forested? Is there a lot of sun? What did it feel like when you were there?
17:51 – What is thermal bridging? And why is that an issue?
19:40 – Since passive house is a relatively new concept in this kind of modern iteration of it, what are some of the ways that you have developed to communicate the ideas of passive house to your clients?
25:51 – What are the origins of the modern Passive House movement?
29:27 – How do you compare LEED to Passive House and what are the ways that someone can understand the two in context?
Additional Resources
Connect with Jenny Peysin:
LinkedIn (Jenny Peysin)
LinkedIn (Jenny Peysin Architecture)
Jenny Peysin Architecture
Courtesy of Jenny Peysin Architecture
About your host:
Atif Qadir is the Founder & CEO of Commonplace, a technology company making it easy for commercial real estate professionals to find and use the $100B of real estate incentives given out every year in the US.
His work has been covered by Technology Review, The Real Deal, Commercial Observer, and Propmodo. He’s also a frequent speaker on the future of buildings and cities on popular industry podcasts and at conferences, including this past year at the Commercial Observer National DEI Conference, Yale AREA Conference, Columbia Real Estate Symposium, Open Data Week NYC and Austin Design Week.
About Commonplace
Commonplace is a founding sponsor of American Building. It is a 100% minority-owned, real estate technology company founded in 2020 to make financing social impact development projects across the US easier. It is funded by venture capital investors Hometeam Ventures, Park West Asset Management, New York Ventures and Shadow Ventures.
About Michael Graves
The world-famous design firm Michael Graves is also a founding sponsor of American Building. Its namesake, the iconoclastic designer Michael Graves, FAIA was a fierce advocate for people-centric design. His work defines a generation of American architecture and includes the Portland Building, the Humana Building and the Denver Public Library. The 1st season of American Building was filmed live at The Warehouse, his historic home in Princeton, New Jersey:
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