Situated just north of the landmark Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago, Conservatory Apartments is poised to demonstrate that the Living Building Challenge CORE and Passive House Certification at scale are within reach for affordable, multi-housing projects in this midwestern cool-humid climate.

Through a biophilic design approach, the Conservatory Apartments will provide 43 units to an underserved population and tell a story about nature that will tie it to its place and time. The sustainability goals for the project are two-fold. First, the client is committed to achieving Passive House Certification. When successful this will be the first affordable project at scale, and just the second certified Passive House multi-family building in the city. Secondly, the project has also been selected to be a participant in the Living Building Challenge (LBC) Pilot Program for affordable housing.  As a part of the project, HED will be studying how to maximize the number of LBC imperatives that we can achieve, with a goal of Energy Petal Certification.