February 4, 2009
Chris Benedict is an architect in New York City. Her firm, Chris Benedict, R.A. specializes in the design of energy efficient, durable, healthy housing projects that are built for the same price as typical construction.
Chris has rehabilitated eighty-one apartment buildings in New York City. Eighteen of these buildings were the first sustainable and energy efficient gut rehabilitation projects in New York City (1997). The project was awarded Environmental Project of the Year by The New York Chapter of The Association of Energy Engineers (AEE) and Chris was awarded Environmental Professional of the Year in 1999 by AEE International. Chris’ ground breaking strategies for gut rehabilitation in New York City have become the basis for The City of New York’s new guidelines for construction. Four new construction residential buildings with 104 apartments designed by Chris are complete. These new buildings each use 15% of the energy of a typical building of the same size for heat and hot water, and 50% of the electricity but cost the same to build as typical residential buildings.
