It takes a moment to notice the hush. Inside two side-by-side Brooklyn town houses, dated to the 1840s and now revived according to Passive House strategies, you’ll hear no din of ventilation systems, no noise from the streets. But while the atmosphere may be quiet, there is nothing muted about these homes—both outspoken design statements and bold case studies in energy-efficient construction.
Tal Schori and Rustam Mehta, childhood friends and founders of GRT Architects, first stepped foot inside them seven years ago at the behest of brother-sister clients, who purchased the residences as adjoining homes for their respective families. The decades had not been kind to the Greek Revival structures, which had changed hands multiple times, suffering neglect, their ornament stripped. “They were falling apart,” recalls Schori, enticed by the…
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Architectural Digest (Digital) - 1 Issue, April 2025