Baxt/Ingui Architects Designed This $19M UWS Townhouse As an Energy-Efficient Passive Home

The listing calls the townhouse at 25 West 88th Street “beyond mint,” and it’s certainly green enough to qualify. This 8,000- square-foot Central Park West home has gotten its fair share of publicity recently. In addition to being a landmarked 1910 historic beauty and having undergone a stem-to-stern modern overhaul, the home’s current owners, investment banker Kurt Roeloffs and his wife Shyanne, worked with the well-known Baxt/Ingui Architects to create an energy-efficient masterpiece that meets both LEED platinum and passive house standards. Even with all that efficiency, they didn’t skimp on luxury. With six floors (and an elevator) and a finished cellar, six bedrooms plus rooms dedicated to yoga, meditation, exercise and crafts, this may, in fact, be “one of the finest contemporary townhomes on the Upper West Side.”

The Roeloffs bought the house for $5.35 million in 2011. They were knowledgeable about the passive house movement that was becoming standard in European building codes but only recently began catching on Stateside and spared no expense to put these energy-efficient strategies to work.

The house might cost $18.95 million, but you’ll rack up some serious saving on your energy bills thanks to systems that include continuous filtered fresh air and water, a draft-free environment with equalized temperatures throughout the house, a whole-house humidification system, solar panels, EcoSmart ethanol fireplaces, sustainable woods like eucalyptus and bamboo throughout, LED lighting, a gas-fired backup generator and a rainwater collection system.

The kitchen is complete with Gaggenau, Wolf and SubZero appliances.

The rear glazing directs the sun throughout the house during daylight hours and makes it glow from within after sundown.

High-tech touches–like lighting, environment and entertainment systems that are iPad-controlled and a security system with entry and motion detection and video cameras–can be found in every room.

[Listing: 25 West 88th Street by Wolf Jakubowski for Brown Harris Stevens]

RELATED:

• NYC’s First Certified “Passive House” by FABRICA 718 is Lean, Mean and Incredibly Green
• Construction Update: Perch Harlem, Manhattan’s First Passive House Rental Building, Rises
• Gorgeous Brooklyn Townhouse Featured on the Cover of House Beautiful Asks $4.5 Million

Images courtesy of Brown Harris Stevens