Architect Frederick Tang transformed a dated farmhouse in Pine Plains into a warm retreat blending rustic charm and modern elegance. Tang redesigned key elements like the staircase and fireplace to create an inviting, cozy space that harmonizes with the scenic landscape, fulfilling the owners’ vision of a family gathering place
46 CURATING COZY WITH THE UPSTATE CURIOUS TEAM
The Upstate Curious Guide to a Cozy Winter at Home spotlights local artisans and boutiques in the Hudson Valley and Catskills, offering handcrafted goods for winter home styling. From ceramics to candles and beyond, the guide celebrates high-quality finds that bring warmth and charm to every corner of the home. Sponsored House Feature
40 HOUSE PROFILE: GLASS HOUSE GLOW
By Joan Vos MacDonald
Amy Rolnick’s Kingston Mid-Century home underwent a transformative renovation by architect David Wallance, a longtime friend. Walls were removed, creating an open, lightfilled space, while an elegant red cedar fence enhances privacy.
50 HOUSE PROFILE: FLY-OVER COUNTRY
By Mary Angeles Armstrong
Architect Paul Gates brings a modernist vision to the Hudson Valley with a hilltop retreat inspired by nature, sustainability, and international design influences. This minimalist home and studio blend sleek lines with expansive views, drawing on Gates’s experiences in California and Japan and the distinctive character of the region’s light.
DEPARTMENTS
9 DESIGN: DOPAMINE DECOR
Local interior designers weigh in on the feel-good home trend.
13 MAKER: SMALL GOODS DESIGN
Woodworker Sam Shippee is driven by design thinking.
16 SOURCE: BALL & CLAW
Longtime restaurateur Maria Philippis launches an antiques shop.
18 DESIGN: INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM OF DINNERWARE DESIGN
A museum devoted to tableware recently opened in Kingston.
21 HOME SERVICES: DOS AND DONT’S OF KITCHEN RENOVATION
Heed this advice from builders and homeowners before you start to plan the kitchen of your dreams.
24 BUILDING SCIENCE: BEYOND THE BLUEPRINT
Builder Jeff Eckes makes a call for climate consciousness.
26 AREA SPOTLIGHT: GREAT BARRINGTON
The Berkshires town is ready to face its housing challenges.
28 AREA SPOTLIGHT: POUGHKEEPSIE
The city is building community through entrepeneurship.
80 BACK PORCH: L’IMPATIENCE CERAMIC SPEAKERS
A studio in Kingston rolls out ceramic speakers for audiophiles.
78 THE MARKET
INDEX OF ADVERTISERS / MAP OF THE REGION
Amy Rolnick’s Mid-Century Mod in Kingston home got a glow-up from childhood friend architect David Wallance.
Photo by Eduard Hueber / archphoto HOUSE PROFILE, PAGE 40
High-Performance Home: A Conversation
October 23 at the Fuller Building
in Kingston
On October 23, over 50 people gathered at the Fuller Building in Kingston for HighPerformance Home: A Conversation, which coincided with the publication of the High-Performance Home Guide in the summer and fall issues of Upstate House. The evening began with networking and a clean energy expo, which brought together a community of people interested in building, renovating, and upgrading with energy efficiency in mind. Attendees interacted with representatives from Hot Water Solutions, River Architects, Alfandre Architecture, and Energy Conservation Services and learned about the renewable technologies available to homeowners and tenants.
The presentation portion of the evening featured a panel of local energy coaches, home energy contractors, builders, and architects answering audience questions about how to go about making homes more comfortable, affordable, and sustainable. The panel included Matt LeFevre, owner of Hot Water Solutions; Mike Murphy, lead energy advisor for the Mid-Hudson Regional Clean Energy Hub and Ulster County energy advisor for Cornell Cooperative Extension; Rick Alfandre, architect and principal at Alfandre Architecture; Melinda McKnight, CEO of Energy Conservation Services; and Jeff Eckes,
a Passive House design/build contractor and CEO of LDR Group. The discussion was moderated by Brian K. Mahoney, Chronogram Media editorial director.
There was a lively back and forth among the panelists and the audience covering topics including home energy assessments, weatherization and electrification, electric vehicles, battery storage, things renters can do to save money and lower their footprint without too much investment in a space, and much more. The event was a resounding success thanks to the active participation and engagement of our attendees. It was a pleasure to see so many passionate individuals come together to explore ways to make a positive impact.
Thanks to all who came out to the event and to all our sponsors: Hot Water Solutions, Alfandre Architecture PC, River Architects, Energy Conservation Services, Altren Renewable Energy, Barry Price Architecture, Natural Energy Solutions, and Studio MM Architect.
Please join us for our next event on January 29 from 5:30-7:30pm at the Fuller Building in Kingston, Smarter Than Ever: Clean Power Guide and Expo. A panel of home energy experts will be there to help answer your most complicated and thorny questions. We hope you will join us!
EDITORIAL
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Photos by Taylor Dederick
DOPAMINE DECOR
THE FEEL-GOOD HOME TREND
By Melissa Esposito
For more than a decade, neutral modernfarmhouse decor has claimed the covers of design magazines and spread throughout the country. And while there’s no expiration to the idea that home should be a soothing sanctuary with a pleasing, catalog-worthy aesthetic, the scales are tilting in a vibrant direction, focused on uplifting decor that elicits joy. Sure, the two concepts can intersect, but the latter is an intentional form of emotive design; a growing trend that has recently been referred to as “dopamine decor.”
The trend is centered around how one’s home can be designed in a way that elicits a rush of dopamine—that naturally occurring hormone associated with pleasure and reward. This treatment can be as simple as displaying heirloom china in a hutch associated with positive family memories, or as luxurious as a whimsical reading room for bookworms. For some, that dopamine release can be sparked by colorful wallpaper in hues associated with a nostalgic place and time—rich beachy blues, woodsy autumnal tones, retro orange, and the like.
Mood-Boosting Rooms
“To me, it seems like the phrasing ‘dopamine decor’ is piggybacking on the trend of how psychology has permeated popular culture, with topics like ‘dopamine,’ ‘trauma responses,’ and ‘biooptimization’ becoming mainstream,” says Jennifer Salvemini, owner of interior design service JLS Lifestyle Consulting in Shokan. “Also, maybe because we’re in a time when people are looking to return home to a space that isn’t just relaxing, but actually boosts your mood—because it’s hard out there, and a space that sparks happiness and joy is worth doing with more intention.”
For some, that means decking their home with vibrant, happy hues and bold patterns. “The modern-farmhouse look saturated the design world for a hot minute, and it seems like the interest in bold color is indicative of the pendulum swinging in the opposite direction,” Salvemini says. “With this trend, people aren’t just redoing cute little powder rooms, but larger spaces or entire homes.”
She describes a client project for which a couple wanted their house to feel like a celebration, and
decided on a running theme of sherbet colors. For example, lemon sorbet cabinetry was brought into the kitchen, with a backsplash of terrazzo tiles in pink, orange, and green, and orangey tones were used throughout the home. “It just felt so happy and joyful,” she says. “It’s really about personal taste, because you could get that dopamine hit from something that might not hit for someone else. And on the other hand, you might find colors that you’re really drawn to, but maybe because one feels soothing and another feels romantic. But if the intention is joy, what colors are eliciting joy? And can you go a few shades brighter to push your boundary?”
Nothing Is Off Limits
Designer Kate Cummings, owner of Freestyle Restyle in Kingston, offers the advice of treating color exploration in design the same way you would in fashion. “When clients have trouble expressing their likes, I tell them to go into their closet, find their favorite things, and take note of colors, patterns, and textures,” Cummings explains. “For
Designer Jennifer Salvemini made a mood-boosting renovation on this Sharon Springs kitchen for the HGTV show “Who’s Afraid of a Cheap Old House?”
Photo by Stephanie Munguia
example, if you like aubergine purple, perhaps that would bring joy to your dining room or den. I think that with the idea of dopamine decor, people are looking for joy, especially through color because that expresses their personality. There’s always a place for a soothing space, but this trend is more about happiness—nothing too serious, and almost no rules.”
That includes the “rule” that one should consider resale value before making any striking changes to home design. While it’s not quite maximalism—which refers more to the brink-ofoverstimulation layering of colors, patterns, and textures for show-stopping wow-factor—this design trend encourages a hyper-personalization of sorts that many have shied away from in recent years, typically sticking to standard grays, creams, and whites for neutrality.
“I understand the whole resale conversation, but I try to talk clients into making it theirs—you should enjoy your home now! The resale-value look is very safe and achievable without bringing in a designer, and if you’re bringing in a pro, have them help you express who you are,” Cummings says. “There’s
a way to incorporate whatever makes you happy, from entire color-saturated rooms to small touches like framed concert posters. Whatever. Go for it. Nothing is off limits.”
Pushing Past Preconceptions
“Some people are very scared of bold color,” agrees Ana Claudia, of Ana Claudia Designs in Rhinebeck. “Maybe this trend is a way to push people past their preconceived notions to see that it’s not scary, but kind of fun. And in the end, it’s all about how you feel when you walk through the door.”
Claudia suggests that the dopamine trend isn’t just about color, but also about the emotion behind fond memories and the thrill of new experiences. For instance, she notes a project for a couple who had a very family-friendly 1990s Colonial and a fondness for neutrals, but were open to creating a formal dining room that made a statement. “The idea was that although they likely wouldn’t entertain often, they would have this unique space for when they wanted to travel within their own home,” she explains. “We went with a wallpaper in green jewel tones, an oval
marble table, and velvet chairs in different tones of rust, green, and dark gray. It’s still very classic, but fun, and leaned away from the more functional design that they’d been used to, making it feel like a very special room.”
Functional design can still be incorporated into dopamine decor, but Claudia suggests thinking about how to take one element and find what about it evokes those positive feelings. A pool table, for instance, might bring joy on game nights or other sporadic occasions. Or, perhaps it’s not the table itself, but that speakeasy vibe—and now you have an idea for your informal living room.
“I think dopamine decor can be about creating that conceptual space,” she says. “If going on holiday makes you happy, what can we do to bring that feeling back home? Start with a story, an experience, a memory—if you’re traveling and inspired by art, contact that artist. If you loved these pillows at a boutique in Miami, buy them from Miami. These pieces will be attached to a memory. That’s what dopamine decor is really about: connection to positive emotion so that your home helps you feel good.”
Jennifer Salvemini for Studio Hinterland’s bathroom design for the 2024 Kingston Design Showhouse in Stone Ridge.
Photo by Phil Mansfield
TURN, TURN, TURN INSIDE SAM SHIPPEE’S DESIGN-DRIVEN WORLD
By Hannah Van Sickle
Sam Shippee has always had what he calls a designfocused brain. As a young person, this revealed itself when making art that—influenced by his mother and father, a writer and painter, respectively—he intended to sell. After binding a single handmade book, for instance, Shippee would immediately set his sights on streamlining the process in order to produce 50 with ease. This early affinity for what he came to understand as process engineering—a systematic approach to design that optimizes efficiency while balancing quality with cost— stuck with him.
“A big part of the enjoyment I get from making furniture is designing how I make it,” says Shippee, whose interest in woodworking took shape after enrolling at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) to study sculpture. When choosing a major, he had contemplated furniture design but wanted experience working with a host of methods and materials—from bronze casting and latex molding to metal and wood—which he got his first year. During his
very first woodworking class, Shippee remembers being captivated by the lathe, a machining tool that rotates the workpiece around a stationary cutting tool, removing excess material and creating an intentional cylindrical shape in the process. In the ensuing dozen years, he has scarcely looked back.
“I’ve always been drawn to turning, as it’s the most oneto-one form of woodworking [I’ve encountered],” says Shippee, in a nod to the very natural feeling of a roughhewn log taking shape before his eyes. It doesn’t hurt that lathe work, considered a subtractive art, is a close cousin to sculpture.
Following his graduation from RISD in 2016, Shippee made an intentional shift away from making art for art’s sake. A fledgling woodshop in his parents’ garage, coupled with a stint working in others’ shops, led to Small Goods Design, Shippee’s furniture and turning studio in Pine Plains. Now 30, he credits accessibility as the driving force behind his chosen craft.
Sam Shippee working on his Windham chair in natural oak and tan leather in his studio in Pine Plains.
Turning requires just two tools, a lathe and a bandsaw; it can happen in a relatively small space; and, perhaps best of all, the process can utilize green wood—bypassing the need for professionally dried wood which takes time and money to procure.
“Green turning allows me to cut a log in half and turn the general shape of a bowl—which I leave a little thick, a little big—before leaving it to dry and then turning it again,” says Shippee of a protracted process that allows him to use bigger pieces of wood. While he favors white oak and black walnut, the most sought after domestic lumber in the industry, Shippee also works with cherry, maple and, on occasion, ash. He does not source any wood from overseas.
On the ground floor of an industrial building downtown, tangible evidence of this ethos abounds. “I’m all about form,” Shippee says, emphasizing an affinity for the sculptural aspects of a piece as opposed to its specific use. “All my pieces are functional, but I think about function in a loose way,” he says nodding to a panoply of short and tall candlesticks, lidded containers, and cutting boards.
When it comes to making furniture, Shippee’s focus lies in a single arena. “I make a huge effort to ensure that every chair I sell is genuinely comfortable,” he says, underscoring the importance of ergonomics. All of Shippee’s made-to-order
furniture, from his line of all-wood dining chairs to a 10-foot trestle table and zig-zag bench, is equally useful and beautiful. A big part of the collection is color, as evidenced by stains—in six hues spanning denim and olive to pomegranate and rose—designed to showcase the natural (and by extension gorgeous) grain of the wood.
This keen eye for color extends to complementary materials. Sling arm chairs put leather from a boutique Hudson Valley tannery to good use; ditto for the Windham bench and barstool, a pair of newish additions to the line. Further visual interest blooms by way of a floral design gracing cutting boards and other vessels—an effect that uses resist liquid to create a negative image that retains the wood’s original color in concert with food-safe reaction finish that ebonizes the exposed wood. Painter Kiernan Pazdar, who is also Shippee’s spouse, works from the studio above and is a frequent collaborator when it comes to such artistic endeavors.
“Pine Plains is deep in its roots, and the locals are still the locals—they haven’t been pushed out,” says Shippee, a graduate of Kingston High School. His affinity for Dutchess and Columbia Counties is evident in his Millbrook chair and Ancram mirror, seemingly small shout-outs to what he
likes best about living and working in this region of tight-knit communities.
When he’s not dreaming up new designs or filling custom orders, Shippee has a bustling wholesale business. A dearth of small-batch manufacturers means established brands seek him out to create various turned components for their finished products that they either can’t—or don’t want to— make, in batches of about 50 or more at a time. In many ways, Shippee’s process continues to revolve around the lessons he learned two decades ago as a once-burgeoning bookbinder.
“Turning complicated pieces on the lathe requires a machinist mentality,” says Shippee, underscoring the order of operations required to do niche work well.
“I find joy in reaping the value from my work,” says Shippee, who admits that production work—like making 100 chair spindles at a time—can be equally draining and rewarding for a single reason: Those hard-to-replicate creative processes he often encountered as a kid have been eradicated.
And so, inspired by the tool of his chosen trade, Shippee’s creative woodworking wheels keep turning.
Clockwise from top left: The Small Goods Design line-up of chairs; spice jars in different finishes; cutting boards; a leather and wood bench
CLAW AND ORDER
BALL AND CLAW BRINGS ANTIQUES TO PORT EWEN
By Remy Commisso
So many people forget how beautiful the little, simple things are. I’m happy that I can open a shop where people come to buy those things. I’m not alone in this. There’s a whole world of people that love weird things,” says Maria Philippis, owner of Ball and Claw in Port Ewen. Philippis makes it her mission to upcycle hidden vintage treasures.
Ball and Claw opened in August after five months of renovation to a storied 1920s Dutch Colonial on Broadway in the hamlet’s downtown. Once the home of the town grocer, the building has had many lives, including a home for the sick and a dentist’s office.
Maria Philippis, who ran the popular bistro Boitson’s in Kingston for a dozen years, bought the property in January. “After I closed my restaurants two years ago, I decided it was time to start doing something else. I lived down the street, saw this property on the board for a long time, and finally just pulled the trigger and bought it,” she says.
A multi-vendor antiques and vintage emporium, the 15 retailers each have their own section of the 3,500-square-foot house, displaying their paintings, chairs, books, and jewelry. Down a slim hallway, greeting cards of ornate still lifes and nature scenes by Art Angels line the walls in old dishware displays alongside bright and colorful cards and prints from Jason O’Malley of Rural Modernist
In addition to in-house merchants, Philippis sources items from estate sales and any community members who are interested in selling something from their own houses. “One of my favorite ways to
acquire items is when people drive up with a trunk full of stuff and they’ll say, ‘Are you interested in buying an old globe, or some old China or some jewelry?’ It’s kind of funny—I’m always looking in people’s cars,” she says.
Ball and Claw is full of “one man’s trash.” Philippis’s collection includes a baseball glove stretcher, glass figurines, and deer antlers. “I love antiques, and I see the beauty in something that’s maybe broken or dirty or discarded, and I love to bring it back to life. I hate landfills,” Philippis says. Ball and Claw, referring to the feet of vintage furniture, is more than the name suggests. The shop is conjoined with a coffee shop where guests can order from the outside through a walk-up window or sit at one of the vintage tables with a friend or a laptop. Philippis hopes the space will become more community oriented, not just a stop and shop. “I have a 13-year-old, and I want to do a chess club where kids can come after school and play chess or have family game nights,” she says. “I feel like we’ve kind of lost a community place to go to.”
In the future, the building will host parties, with a cocktail bar collaboration with Stockade Tavern currently in the works. The second floor, which is still being renovated, will also be an event space for workshops, community talks, and anything by popular demand. Philippis also plans to create a library where shoppers can stop and read a book.
While some of the walls have been painted in muted shades of yellow and pink, a neutral color palate prevails. “People come in for the colors and
I hear that they’re really drawn to the soothing walls. They’re dark, but they’re not oppressive. So that’s been a big topic. I really wanted to feel that nice flow from room to room,” Philippis says. Although she doesn’t have a background in design, her metalsmithing BFA shows in the interiors and the arrangement of the antique items. Looking into the glass cases with smaller, more fragile items, symmetry and lines lead the eyes from silverware to jewelry to gadgets.
Inside one case, a collection of vintage cars stretches across the space in rainbow order. Hanging next to these cars is an old oil lamp, at one point in history, a miner’s only source of light. “That’s so crazy and beautiful that it survived. A lot of these things just got thrown into the pit in the backyard, because no one used it anymore,” Philippis says.
After vending at Field + Supply this fall, the shop has been getting a lot of traffic from locals and people visiting from New York City. “People are discovering us and then they tell their friends and everybody’s been coming back. I’m surprised at how busy we’ve been, considering we just got the sign and we’re just starting to get some publicity,” she says.
The shop is open seven days a week. From now until Christmas, Ball and Claw will host a Friday holiday happy hour from 4 to 7pm featuring wine and cheese and of course—shopping.
Ball and Claw is a multi-vendor antiques and vintage emporium with 15 retailers in a 3,500-square-foot house in downtown Port Ewen. Operated by former Boitson’s bistro owner Maria Philippis, Ball and Claw also features a coffee shop serving drinks and pastries. Philippis plans to use the second floor as an event space and upcoming collaborations include cocktail parties in partnership with Stockade Tavern.
PLATE EXPECTATIONS INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM OF DINNERWARE DESIGN OPENS IN KINGSTON
By Joan Vos MacDonald
What constitutes dinnerware? Do you have to be able to eat with it or off it? Or could it simply feed your imagination? The International Museum of Dinnerware Design, which opened in Kingston this fall showcases both perspectives, featuring pedigreed dinnerware and some inventive dining-inspired art.
Although the museum was founded in 2012, the new location in Midtown serves as its first long-term exhibition space. Before deciding on the former Barcone’s Music store, the founders presented a series of lectures and pop-up exhibits at locations such as SOFA Chicago and Ann Arbor’s Museum on Main Street showcasing more than 9,000 pieces of dinnerware and art.
The museum’s inaugural exhibit is titled “Holy Grails.” The title refers to a cup that, according to medieval legend, was used at the Last Supper and thereafter became the object of knightly quests. It’s apt because founding director and curator Margaret Carney has been on a lifelong hunt to collect distinctive dinnerware and art that reflects the dining experience.
The exhibit features pleasingly symmetrical dinnerware by industrial designer Russel Wright, pieces by Eva Zeisel, the first female designer to have a show mounted at MOMA, and black-andwhite diner dishes designed by pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. The exhibit also serves up whimsical,
less practical selections. It would be difficult to actually dine on the sculptural wire dinnerware created by Portuguese artist David Olivera, although it does cast appetizingly feathery shadow patterns. And it would be impossible to eat with the impressive knife, fork, and spoon sculpture by Bill Parry. Nestled somewhere between art and everyday dinnerware are the tea cups that fit neatly into the crevices of a porcelain teapot. Designed by Peter and Peg Saenger, this boldly configured tea set was featured on “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”
“We’re not just grandma’s little old dishes with flowers on them,” says Carney. “We have those, but we don’t need any more of those. I want things that will inspire people and show different materials and show how artists think about things. We have the best designers ever, many of whom were MidCentury or Art Deco people, in our collection.”
The museum’s collection is a mix of functional and fanciful.
“Referencing dining, we have kitsch, we have art, we have the whole realm,” says Carney, who has a PhD in Asian art history. “And we have more ceramics than we have other things, because that’s what people think of. However, we also have a lot of, and I do mean a lot of, glass, paper, plastic, disposable dishes and metal fiber.”
The most striking piece in the current exhibit is Rose Garden, a sculpture by Eddie Dominguez that
also happens to be a full dinner set. Diners can lift out the plates that look like large vertical leaves and claim the small bowls that look like roses.
‘This artist’s work is beautiful and that’s why I love it,” says Carney. “People could walk around it because if it was on a buffet, you’d be picking up your plate and you’d be getting your cup and your bowl. You’d be taking your set. The artist labeled everything. After 25 years the numbers are still on the bottom of the pieces and on the leather insert. So you know how to stack it. There’s a diagram with it, so you won’t get the order wrong. It’s how to celebrate dining and the garden as an installation.”
The exhibit also includes a persimmon-edged Art Deco dining set designed by Don Schreckengost, as well as painted porcelain replicas of takeout boxes by contemporary artist Beth Lo. For a helping of nostalgia there’s a vintage lunchbox from the Aladdin Company, with an exterior decorated to look like a loaf of sliced bread.
Other museums feature dinnerware, says Carney, but it’s often a small, dedicated space, and she’s convinced that dinnerware deserves more. Carney hopes to raise funds for an even larger permanent space with an on-staff chef. “We’re the only museum in the world devoted to dining, to celebrating dining,” says Carney. “And the reason I founded the museum is not only my obsession with food, but it’s the idea that it brings diverse people together.
Mandarin Tricorne dinnerware by Don Schreckengost and other designers at Salem China Co., circa 1930s, from “Dining Grails” the inaugural exhibition at the International Museum of Dinnerware Design in Kingston.
They’re sharing a meal, they’re sharing a conversation, or they’ve just shared an experience.”
Bottom Right: The International Museum of Dinnerware Design’s siting in Kingston is part of an artistic renaissance in the city’s Midtown neighorbood that includes the expansion of the Center for Photography and the opening of the Center for Holographic Arts.
The right setting can provide historical and cultural context so the museum offers a room full of dining vignettes. Plastic peas seem to congeal on a TV dinner tray in front of an early TV set. There’s a swinging ‘60s vignette complete with a shag rug, Peter Max dinnerware, a Dylan album, and a Peter Max poster of Dylan. There’s a setting in a diner that might have served Chinese food in long-ago San Francisco. A well-appointed picnic blanket sprawls across another section of the floor.
Carney, who previously founded a ceramics museum at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, was living in Ann Arbor, Michigan, when she and husband, Bill Walker, began considering where to locate the museum. They considered Minneapolis, Saint Paul, and Palm Springs before deciding on Kingston because of its thriving art scene. Their current space is sunny and central.
“We’re in Midtown, we’re in a prominent place, and
we’re close to the Center for Photography and there’s the Center for Holographic Arts on this corner,” says Carney. “We know that we’re in exactly the right place.”
Upcoming exhibits will feature dining-related themes that invite contemporary artists to display their works. Past exhibits had playful themes such as “Entomophagous Dining,” that is eating insects, or the more palatable design themes of “Cake,” “ Breakfast,” or “ Butter,” none of which featured actual food. Carney says she has not yet run out of fun exhibit ideas. “We did one that was called the ‘Art of High Chair Fine Dining,’” says Carney. “We displayed the artist’s work on old vintage high chairs.”
A planned series of Zoom lectures have already started with the first talk delivered by sculptor Eddie Dominguez. Carney hopes the museum will promote new perspectives on what dining is and can be. “Even if you’re dining off of disposable dinnerware, it’s a chance to be together with other people, to have an experience, to have a moment.”
Top: Twelve place settings from Rose Garden by Eddie Dominguez.
Bottom Left: Margaret Carney, International Museum of Dinnerware Design director and curator and her husband, Bill Walker.
COOKING UP CHANGE
THE DOS AND DON’TS OF KITCHEN RENOVATION
By Maggie Baribault
Claire Fields purchased her 1,200-foot bungalow-style cottage in Shandaken with her husband in 2018 and spent three years there before deciding to tackle a kitchen renovation. The kitchen dated to the original construction of the house in 1972, so it was a “chopped up, cramped layout that just wasn’t conducive to our lifestyle, especially once we had our son,” Fields says.
The original kitchen had beige linoleum floors that were peeling at the edges, an old cast-iron woodstove in the pass-through between the kitchen and living room that “interrupted the flow and was quite frankly a fire hazard, and the cabinets were built by hand but were weirdly not very usable,” Fields says.
As part of their kitchen renovation, the Fields family removed the wall between the living room and kitchen to transform the small space into an open-concept plan that allowed them to keep an eye on their toddler while cooking, and lofted their ceilings. It took nine weeks to demolish and rebuild the renovated space. Through the process, Fields picked up the dos and don’ts of kitchen renovation.
Budgeting Wisely
“Budgeting is one of the toughest parts of any construction project,” Fields says. “Contractors may provide initial estimates six to eight months before work begins that, because of our recent inflation trends, don’t hold any water by the time the project actually starts.” To manage this, the Fieldses included a buffer for potential cost overruns in their renovation budget, which helped align the project with their expectations and minimized surprises when final invoices arrived.
Dan Arket, owner of Tekra Builders, recommends allotting 10 to 15 percent as a contingency for unexpected costs. James Bruyn, the lead designer at Hudson Valley Kitchen Design Center (HVKDC), adds that a common mistake is under-budgeting and cutting corners with shortcuts and cheap materials. He has seen kitchens replaced even after just five years. “A well-planned design is invaluable,” he notes. On average, a kitchen remodel costs about 15 to 20 percent of a home’s value, and he suggests saving 1.5 to 2 percent of the home’s value annually for projects, along with considering home equity
lines of credit or other financing options.
Arket emphasizes the importance of thorough planning upfront. “Make cohesive choices to see how they add up, rather than focusing only on bigticket items,” he advises.
Local homeowner Jessica Davis, who purchased a 1938 home and began renovation four months after moving in, echoes this sentiment: “Creativity loves constraints. For most of us, budget is a natural constraint.” She says the options for every aspect of a kitchen redesign, from flooring to backsplash tile to countertops, wall finishing, and paint color can be overwhelming. “Let yourself fall in love,” she says, with a piece of furniture, sink, or tile pattern, and let that lead the way. Each decision narrows future options, helping to avoid the paralysis of too many possibilities. “Not every aspect of your kitchen needs to shine,” Davis says. “It’s okay to have some protagonists as long as the rest is in harmony.”
Managing the Renovation Timeline
One of the biggest challenges for Fields was managing her family’s accommodations amidst
A kitchen redesigned by Hudson Valley Kitchen Design Center. Lead designer James Bruyn notes that a common mistake homeowners make is underbudgeting and cutting corners on materials.
shifting schedules. “It’s vital to take construction timelines with a grain of salt,” she cautions. They are just estimates. It’s important to be flexible and have backup plans for how to cook and eat, and what living will be like during construction. Bruyn also stresses that remodeling impacts personal space and should be approached with care to minimize disruption.
While kitchen remodels typically take about six weeks, unforeseen delays can extend this timeframe. Bruyn notes that demolition is crucial to the timeline. “A project can be a year in the making between design and ordering materials, but once the demo starts, it can’t be done quickly enough,” he says. However, certain steps like drying times for paint and grout cannot be rushed. “Collaborating with a project manager, such as a contractor or design firm, helps coordinate all aspects of the work and trades to minimize downtime,” Bruyn adds.
Choosing Sustainable and Energy-Efficient Options
Kitchen remodels typically occur every 20 to 30 years, so even a small improvement in efficiency can yield long-term benefits. Bruyn notes that HVKDC regularly upgrades insulation, switches all lighting to LED, and donates existing kitchens for reuse, to lower the environmental impacts of kitchen renovations.
For appliances, Bruyn recommends energyefficient brands like Liebherr and the Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Cove family, which are designed to last at least 20 years. He suggests using textured laminate for cabinetry, which mimics wood while conserving resources and enhancing durability. A simple design with minimal ornamentation can further reduce environmental impact.
Davis emphasizes that thrifting and vintage shopping are essential for sustainable kitchen renovations. By keeping her original farmhouse sink, she not only preserved history but also reduced waste—every reused item lessens the demand for new production. Second-hand pieces can also be found in thrift stores, vintage shops, or online marketplaces. Pairing these with modern appliances can cut energy use by up to 50 percent compared to standard models, significantly lowering energy bills and greenhouse gas emissions. This blend of vintage charm and eco-conscious technology minimizes waste and creates an inviting environment that reflects personal stories. Davis’s approach proves style and sustainability can beautifully coexist.
Prioritizing Functionality Over Aesthetics
Given the high cost of kitchen renovations, the Fields prioritized long-term functionality over
fleeting design trends. “Our space is still very modern, but ultimately, the largest changes we made [adding a peninsula to separate the kitchen from the living room and creating a custom built-in bench for dining seating] were based on how we use the space every day,” Fields says.
Bruyn emphasizes that a practical kitchen should be timeless and serve multiple generations. Adequate storage, ease of movement, and durable materials are essential.
“Almost two years later, I am still in love with our kitchen because we thoughtfully considered how the space was going to be used daily,” Fields says. As an avid home cook, she adds, “I have waited all my adult life for a nice refrigerator, range, and workspace. It is such a joy to have invested in quality items that make our home life easier. As our son grows, it’s obvious we made the right choices for our family’s needs, and that is the most rewarding thing of all.”
Davis echoes this sentiment, noting that the most fulfilling aspect of her renovation has been bringing her vision to life, transforming the kitchen into the heart of her home. After hosting a dinner party showcasing her new space, where friends came together to enjoy delicious food and wonderful company, she felt reassured of her design choices. Davis felt the joy of creating a home that reflects her style and brings loved ones together.
A kitchen redesigned by Tekra Builders. Owner Dan Arket recommends allotting 10 to 15 percent as a contingency for unexpected costs.
Beyond the Blueprint A CALL TO CLIMATE CONSCIOUSNESS
By Jeff Eckes
Urgent Letter to Hudson Valley Readers
Re: High performance homes, the climate crisis and the middle class.
November 6, 2024
As many of us are, I’m sitting here at my desk feeling like I’ve been hit by a Mack truck. I’ve instituted a news blackout to get some distance and be able to think, but even with that effort a few things have seeped through, and everything I see or hear shows me one more way that this election result could spell the end of any kind of real support for so many technologies and systems that we must roll out before 2030 to have any hope of even partial success on our climate goals.
So many in fact, that I have the beginnings of a list that could not possibly be dealt with in a single issue, or even two of them. We may need to rethink most, or even all of the game plan that relies on federally funded initiatives so many have worked so hard and long to map out and initiate. Figuring out the science isn’t usually fast, but we have enough at this point to very clearly point the way forward.
What’s obvious is this: It will be up to all of us who care about the climate crisis to find solutions that
can survive mass privatization and the anticipated repercussions of this election.
The government will likely be out of the business of promoting and more importantly funding anything at all to do with climate, in fact I expect that word will be banned by our government day one, just like it was in Florida and other red states. I’m hopeful that the Biden administration will do everything it can to hustle as much of that money out the door before January 20, so get those projects done now, if you can. The real question will be: What do we do after that?
I have been very vocal for several years about how high-performance home renovation/building practices and materials need to be perfected enough to make this technology available to the middle class. What I didn’t realize was how much larger and more diverse the high-performance home community has become in the last few years! At the Upstate House High Performance Home Conversation event in October in Kingston, the discussion kept returning to the word “community.”
Community is all of us. It’s our families and our friends, sure, but it’s also the group that publishes this magazine who have decided to engage in this conversation and give advocates like me a
platform. It’s the company owners that do the energy assessing, insulation, and electrifying of our homes informing themselves and training their staff on best practices. It’s customers demanding more because they are better informed and writers like me getting the information to the homeowners in a way they can understand and enthusiastically get behind. It’s all of us, all the time, everywhere. Learning and sharing, and demanding that our local elected leaders listen and act for the residents, not just large corporations…or even small corporations! But enough of the philosophical, I’m feeling like I need something actionable right now, something to help me feel less helpless in the face of this huge setback.
Talk about climate. To everyone. Ask questions! We don’t place as much import on this action as we should. Talking not only spreads the word, it hones your argument and multiplies the impact. When someone hears many people in their lives talking about the same thing, they want to know more about it, that’s just human nature. Remember that asking questions is one of the best ways to begin a conversation.
Educate yourself. Inform your friends. When I got certified in Passive House there were very few resources available, especially for non-nerds. That has changed today. From my modest effort with our podcast “Passive Aggressive” (new episodes coming this fall!) to the regular and profuse offerings from the Passive House Network, this publication’s Clean Power Guide (page 55), and even in the courses offered in local universities, like the bachelor of science in building sciences at RPI, information, once widely learned, cannot be destroyed.
Do what you can, where you can.
Are you buying an old home to remodel? You can be a climate hero if you remodel with an understanding of the science behind your home. It’s not as difficult as you may think. Buying a home already completed? Look for a builder/ developer that understands building science and uses what they know to fabricate better buildings. Just remodeling your kitchen? Why not do it the right way, right down to sealing and insulating the right way, even if it’s just that room? “Just” a renter? There are programs you can bring to your landlord that can save them a lot of money on upgrades, from insulation to new heat pump water heaters, and indoor climate control. The point is, everyone has a role, and they are all important for reaching our goals, no matter how small their influence seems.
If you can’t do, plan to do.
Not everyone can afford to buy or build a house, but we can all plan! Just the act of planning can open new doors for you, and it certainly educates you on what the available choices are. Start a project book and begin collecting information. The more information that you have ‘in the book’, the faster and less costly it is for you once you do have that opportunity. The same goes for activism: if you can’t do, plan to do! Take the time to make a difference; serve on your local climate committee, run for town board, get involved with community solar. If not you and I, who?
Teach!
Those of us that have been traveling this road to high performance housing have an obligation to teach. Most of us would call it an obsession and a joy, but whatever you call it, please keep spreading the word, only faster and harder!! However much we are doing, we need to do more, or do it smarter! Set up and find funding for homeowner-education classes on high-performance building science, maybe one or two nights at your local YMCA or Elks club. Invite even unlikely possible allies, and help bring pressure from below by informing all of our fellow community members, maybe even the ones that scoff right now. Many of us in the high performance ‘intelligentsia’ derive large parts of our income from teaching these ideas and skills, please consider donating more of your ongoing efforts to teaching your neighbors in your community than you already do. Those are the rough outlines of what I propose to break down in detail over the next several issues, and I want to hear from you, our community. Homeowners, tradespersons, business owners, teachers, and auto mechanics; How are you feeling about this? What is it that you and your families want and need in this matter? What concerns you the most? How do you plan on making a difference?
Email me with your comments and questions, and let’s roll up our sleeves and get started: jeffreyaeckes@ldrgroup.net.
GREAT BARRINGTON
Iwas born by a golden river and in the shadow of two great hills, five years after the Emancipation Proclamation,” wrote Great Barrington native W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963) in his autobiography. The only Black child in his school, raised by a single mom, he would later reflect that “in general conduct and thought, I became quite thoroughly New England,” a cultural DNA strand that contributed to a life of epic achievement and world travel in the face of massive opposition.
But throughout an extraordinarily eventful life, Du Bois never lost his devotion to his “golden river,” the Housatonic—in 1961, at 93, he was writing to Great Barrington from Ghana to advocate for its protection. At the time, General Electric was still pumping it full of PCBs. Mitigation and cleanup have been in progress since the 1980s, and by 2012, Great Barrington was celebrating the 25th anniversary of its Housatonic River Walk in Du Bois River Park, paying homage to the great thinker and to the Mahican people who’d come before him.
Great Barrington lends itself to warmth, art, and philosophy, buzzing with a juicy New Englandinflected liveliness that seduces the newcomer into joining in the fun and maybe creating some more. “In
Threads of Tradition
ByAnne Pyburn Craig Photos by David McIntyre
the very, very early days, when my dad first bought the place, there was some fear,” says Annie Guthrie, daughter of Arlo, granddaughter of Woody, and present-day director of the Guthrie Center, housed in the church that played a starring role in the epic of “Alice’s Restaurant.” “I think everybody expected us to run motorcycles through the building and throw litter around; they’d all seen the movie. It took a little while. But now, we have a great working relationship with the powers that be and the whole community.”
What the Guthries did at the Old Trinity Church was welcome visitors from everywhere, serving community lunches and Thanksgivings, hosting open mic hootenannies and opening an instrument lending library, and holding monthly Praise Sundays, which Guthrie says her father designed as a “bring your own God” church.
The Guthrie Center is part of a wider web in more ways than one. The Great Barrington-based Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires, founded in 2016, has 140 active member organizations. Many are decades old; affordable housing builders Construct, Inc, for example, began its work in 1969, inspired by President Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty” speech, and shows no signs of slowing down.
“With the Affordable Homes Act, I think a lot of us feel hopeful that we’re going to be able to make a significant dent in the challenge in the next several years, because so much money was put into it by the governor and then the legislature looked at it and added more,” says Construct executive director Jane Ralph about legislation passed earlier this year in Massachusetts that authorizes over $5 billion in spending to counter rising housing costs. “And Great Barrington probably has more resources in place than many other Berkshires towns. It’s been steadily increasing the stock of affordable housing and supporting creative measures to create workforce housing as well. The small business community, the financial institutions, the nonprofit community, the faith communities, and the town itself are really supportive of creative, collaborative ways of meeting housing needs.”
The Scene
“Everybody knows everybody in a town this size, for better or for worse—mostly for better,” says Ralph. “Berkshires people are open and accepting of anybody who wants to help the community thrive. It’s a supportive, welcoming kind of place. We’re
Looking west on Main Street in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
Opposite: Great Barrington takes pride in celebrating native son W. E. B. Du Bois.
trying to make sure it’s accessible to anyone who wants or needs to live here.”
It’s easy to see why anyone would want to— Great Barrington sparkles. “So, for example, last Saturday,” says Ralph. “My partner and I hit the Triplex Cinema for a couple of movies—it’s owned by a community collective now—and got some amazing popcorn chicken at Juju’s. The owner there, Josh Irwin, was smart enough to reach out to the Haitian immigrant community and hire some great cooks. There are a lot of wonderful restaurants here, and great downtown shops. And we love hanging out at the Berkshire South Community Center—there’s a pool and a gym, and lots of community programming.” For an evening out, there’s always something going on at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center or at Saint James Place culture center.
The Market
Steph McNair, Regional Brokerage Manager at the Great Barrington Brokerage of William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty, says that supply has improved and things have cooled off a bit. “It’s the first time since 2019 that we’ve had around 500 properties on the market—in 2020
and 2021, it was under 200,” she says. “Demand is still high, but the market under, say, $1.2 million is vibrant. And we’re seeing a lot more mortgage offers getting accepted in the $175,000 to $600,000 range. Things are normalizing; For a while, there wasn’t much available and now there’s residential property under $700,000 to $800,000, which is really great for people who’ve been saving up and hoping. Get a good lender who’ll help you drill down and understand what kind of monthly outlay you can really afford with taxes and utilities figured in—Great Barrington tends to have lower taxes than the Hudson Valley or Connecticut, so there’s that.”
At press time, there were indeed a good selection of three- and four-bedroom houses being offered in the $350,000 to $600,000 range, mostly on lots under an acre. A two-bedroom fixer-upper on iconic Railroad Avenue was pending at $99,000. At the other end of the spectrum, $2,215,000 would get you a historic four-bedroom with oak and mahogany woodwork and high ceilings throughout and updated mechanicals and kitchen, just a short walk from all the fun of town.
ZIP CODE: 01230
POPULATION: 7,162
MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME: $95,490
PROXIMITY TO MAJOR CITY: Great Barrington is 135 miles from both New York City and Boston.
TRANSPORTATION: Reach Great Barrington by car via the Massachusetts Turnpike (I-90; Exit 1, West Stockbridge to Route 41 South, or Exit 2, Lee/US Route 20 to Route 7 South). There is Bonanza Bus service to Lee and Lenox, and Amtrak train service to Pittsfield.
NEAREST HOSPITAL: Fairview Hospital, 29 Lewis Avenue, Great Barrington.
SCHOOLS: The Berkshire Hills Regional School District, based in nearby Stockbridge, is well regarded, as are a number of nearby independent schools including the Berkshire Waldorf School, Berkshire Country Day School, and Berkshire School.
POINTS OF INTEREST: Monument Mountain, Flag Rock, Fountain Pond State Park, Lake Mansfield, Benedict Pond, W. E. B. Du Bois Boyhood Site, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Triplex Cinema, Berkshire South Regional Community Center, Guthrie Center, Giggle Park, Berkshire Food Co-op, Bard College at Simon’s Rock.
• Great Barrington
POUGHKEEPSIE
Poughkeepsie began the year with the swearing-in of its first Black mayor, Yvonne Flowers, a native daughter who swept all eight wards after a campaign focused on public safety, homelessness, youth services, and housing—tough nuts to crack in any post-industrial city.
Police Chief Rich Wilson, born and raised here, began as a dispatcher in 1994 and collaborated with the city to develop reform and modernization initiatives in 2020; as chief since last fall, he’ll be helping Flowers implement policies that have drawn both criticism and praise for forcefully aiming to steer the homeless to treatment. That will be available at the new Dutchess County Empowerment Center, located in the city and offering peer-driven, low-barrier support and education to anyone struggling with mental health or substance use.
In September, Mayor Flowers was able to share the news that the state comptroller’s office had awarded the city an improved fiscal stress score. Other announcements included $12 million from the state to replace lead pipes and $500,000 of federal grant money to develop a “communitydriven transformation plan” for the city’s public housing in its Northside neighborhood. Meanwhile, two of the Queen City’s heaviest hitters had big
Building Community Together
By Anne Pyburn Craig Photos by David McIntyre
news, with IBM announcing a major expansion of its Quantum Data Center and Vassar College announcing that the net-zero building housing its new hotel and locavore restaurant would also be the home of the Institute for the Liberal Arts, where faculty and thought leaders will collaborate on “significant topics including environmentalism, educational justice, and how the liberal arts can help mobilize entrepreneurship.”
On Main Street, a new business improvement district is in the works; the city is applying for $10 million in Downtown Revitalization Initiative funds to benefit the corridor, which had struggled for decades. There’s already some buzz, with Poughkeepsie’s Main Street being chosen as one of eight in New York that are “bustling” by WorldAtlas.
Steps from Main Street, the Chance Theater—a destination venue since 1912—is being refurbished by the Walkway Group, formerly Chai Developers, a company with a double handful of Poughkeepsie projects in its portfolio. And when arts executives Trish Santini and Frank Butler sought the perfect location for their Empire Training Center for the Arts, it was the revitalization of the Chance that sealed the deal.
“I reached out to them and said I was intrigued
by their Main Street emphasis and their purchase of the theater, and told them who we were and what we wanted to do,” says Santini, “and after several conversations, they invited us to site the training center there.” The training center will welcome the first students to the stagecraft and technology track in spring of 2025 and add an arts administration track soon afterwards.
The Scene
“I’ve found this community to be so warm, welcoming, passionate and supportive about the work that we’re doing, but also just personally and in helping us make connections,” says Santini.”We hosted an open house at the Chance in September— the mayor was there along with 100-plus guests, folks from arts organizations, community leaders, local government. I told them that part of our ability to move at the pace we’ve been able to move is because every single person we’ve met has introduced us to anywhere from five to 10 other people, helped us build connections, create conversations, and build partnerships at a pace I didn’t anticipate. It’s been kind of extraordinary.” Down on the waterfront, Gigi Fairchild and her artist husband have launched Anna et Pierre Le Cafe, named for Fairchild’s hospitality-forward
grandparents, offering artisanal coffee, fresh pastry, art, and chillaxation. “If you just want coffee and a croissant to go, fine,” she says, “but we’re hoping people will sit back and stay, bring your laptop or your book, meet up with that friend you talk to for hours. We have a lot of board games, cards—we want it to feel absolutely inclusive and welcoming.”
They chose Poughkeepsie after considerable exploration, having fallen in love with both the culinary scene and the wider vibe. “It’s home to a very diverse population, and in that diversity, there’s just a lot of love,” says Fairchild. “There’s a rich culture out here; more so than a lot of people realize—it’s a beautiful, historic area that has an amazing art scene, just a beautiful place to live or to visit. And I’m so happy to be a part of the community. This is a dream I’ve been dreaming up for the last decade, saving every penny to make it happen, and Poughkeepsie feels like the perfect place to make it real.”
The Market
Joyce Stanton, a broker with Century 21 who’s been selling here for 22 years, says that things have cooled a bit since peak pandemic-driven insanity. “It’s changed some; I think some of it is because of last summer’s National Association of Realtors settlement,” she says. “People are adjusting to the
new rules, and in some cases, buyers aren’t moving forward quite so quickly. Things have slowed a bit. No, not a buyer’s market yet, but it looks like it’s going to be shifting that way.”
Stanton says a mellower market is actually better for all concerned. “I don’t think it should be so fast. I think people should take their time and look and make sure this is what they want. And I think that’s what’s happening now—buyers are not feeling quite so pressured anymore, prices are down a little. Good. A healthy community needs to be affordable for everyone.”
At press time, according to Realtor.com, the median listing price for a Poughkeepsie home was $398,500. A tidy 1,300-square-foot brick studio, suitable for either home or business, was offered as-is for $149,000 in cash; a move-in-ready 980-square-foot three-bedroom in a development was on the market for $165,000.
In the $300,000 to 500,000 range, there were plenty of three- and four-bedroom choices ranging from contemporary to Colonial; a three-bedroom stone cottage on almost an acre, located near the Walkway and boasting mixed-use development possibilities, was listed at $395,000. A spacious five-bedroom Colonial in the Academy Street Historic District needing some renovation but with high ceilings, original woodwork, and abundant natural light, was offered for $365,000.
ZIP CODE: 12601, 12602, 12603, 12604
POPULATION: 45,453
MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME: $53,975
PROXIMITY TO MAJOR CITY: 70 miles from New York City, 80 miles from Albany
TRANSPORTATION: The city is accessible by the Noxon Road exit of the Taconic State Parkway. Both Metro-North and Amtrak trains stop downtown. The city runs its own bus system, and the Dutchess County-wide LOOP buses also make stops.
NEAREST HOSPITAL: Both Vassar Brothers Medical Center and the Mid-Hudson Regional Hospital of Westchester Medical Center (formerly St. Francis Hospital) are located within the city.
SCHOOLS: The Poughkeepsie City School District has nearly 5,000 students attending six elementary schools, a middle school, a high school, and a community learning center. Private schools include Poughkeepsie Day School, Oakwood Friends School, Faith Christian Academy, and Our Lady of Lourdes High School.
POINTS OF INTEREST: Walkway Over the Hudson, Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center, Barrett Art Center, Poughkeepsie Trolley Barn, Bardavon 1869 Opera House, Vassar College, Marist College, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Mid-Hudson Discovery Museum, Locust Grove (Samuel L. Morse Estate), Waryas Park Promenade, Union Street Historic District
Giovanni and Roberto Rossi outside their iconic deli on South Clover Street. Opposite: Poughkeepsie Mayor Yvonne Flowers in front of City Hall.
With the help of architect Frederick Tang, Lauren Flicker and Julian Yap found a modern farmhouse to fit their growing family. To create a cozy lounge in the double-height living room, Tang replaced the oversized fireplace and finished it in black Cle tile. Designer Barbara Reyes added a plush DWR sectional sofa and a CB2 swivel chair and ottoman and utilized pendant lighting to create an intimate feel. The custom dining table, made for extended family dinners, seats 10.
THE GREAT INDOORS
Frederick Tang Architects redesigns a farmhouse for window-watching weather
By Mary Angeles Armstrong
Photos by Gieves Anderson
There’s an Icelandic word—gluggaveour—that captures a certain Hudson Valley winter aesthetic, when the stark, moody weather is beautiful to look at, but best enjoyed from indoors, ideally near a roaring fire with a cup of tea in hand. It was exactly this juxtaposition of cozy and captivating that architect Frederick Tang hoped to capture when remodeling a 4,500-square-foot farmhouse on 16 acres in Pine Plains. His clients, bio-ethics professor Lauren Flicker and podcast producer Julian Yap, were seeking a retreat that functioned on parallel levels. With two young children and a dog, the couple needed comfortable, intimate spaces for family weekends ensconced at home. But they also need space: A few spare rooms and an oversized dining area to host extended family—sometimes lots of them—for holiday celebrations and sit-down dinners. “Growing up, my parents had a cabin in Greene County,” explains Flicker. “ We wanted a place where family could gather but we also envisioned our daughters growing up here together.”
Tang had renovated a relative’s Germantown home and they loved the results. “Fred’s work on our cousin’s house was exactly our aesthetic with beautiful, clean lines,” says Flicker. “ We’d also spent some time with him socially and hit it off.” Tang married the couple’s vision with his own expertise, creating a home steeped in the vast setting but so comfortable it’s tempting to hibernate inside all winter.
A Farmhouse on the Edge
In 2020, after Flicker and Yap found themselves making regular weekend visits to the Hudson area, the couple decided to “semi-seriously, semi-fun” look for a permanent abode. That’s when they enlisted Tang, who has a home in nearby Tivoli, to not only help them create their ideal retreat but to find it. Tang introduced them to broker Kate Wood of Worth Preserving and walked them through both the region and the realities of upstate architecture. “I encouraged them to find something to remodel rather than a new construction,” says Tang. “New builds are costly and would take up to two years to complete. I thought we could finish something a lot sooner.”
The couple focused their search on Dutchess and Columbia counties. They found their contemporary farmhouse unexpectedly after initially dismissing it. “I didn’t really get a good vibe off the house from the online listing,” says Flicker. “But our realtor encouraged a visit.” So they journeyed to the edge of their search radius and found an agrarian scene with a modern twist. Surrounded by fields and built to look like a traditional farmhouse, the property was protected visually by an agricultural easement and adjacent to forever wild land. A classic red barn (which is actually a pool house) completed the bucolic motif.
With six combined bedroom-bonus rooms and four baths, the farmhouse was large enough to accommodate the couple’s needs, however it was the rural landscape and the unobstructed views of Mount Stissing that sold them. “ When we saw the view, we said ‘This is it, this is the one,’” explains Flicker. They bought it and Tang began transforming the home into a comfortable outpost with contemporary flair.
Y2 Cave
Tang had his work cut out for him. Built in 2004, the Y2Kera interiors were cluttered and overbearing. “The house was initially a modular house,” says Tang pointing to the L-shaped first floor with an oversized, double-height living room. “The living room wasn’t typical for a farmhouse,” he says. “It was dramatic but also cavernous, so we needed to find balance.” With dark blue-painted walls, an imposing fireplace, and a modular craftsman staircase dominating the space, the home’s main room was all jagged angles. “The staircase was really strange because it turned back on itself and ate into the space of the room,” says Tang. “It was too chunky and boxy for the room.”
The double-height fireplace was also completely out of place. “It was like a Colonial fireplace on steroids,” Tang
The Y2K-era Pine Plains home was designed to echo the region’s agrarian roots but featured a faux Colonial interior and dark walls. Sitting on 16 acres of open fields and adjacent to forever wild land, the home also features unobstructed views of nearby Stissing Mountain. “We weren’t drawn to the home’s interior, but when we visited the house and saw the view, we thought ‘This is it, this is the one,’” says Flicker.
Opposite: Tang also removed a boxy, Craftsman-style staircase, and then replaced it with a singlerun staircase made from red oak tambour. “We wanted it to feel like a sculpture sitting apart from the space,” says Tang of the staircase design. Underneath, a separate dark terracotta-tiled mudroom features a hidden coat closet and entryway.
Left: Flicker and Yap hoped to find a home where they could comfortably host relatives coming from near and far. When they found the right space, Tang helped custom design a 10-seat dining table out of walnut with ebony hardwood trim for the perfect living room corner. The wishbone chairs are matched with a Cointrin light fixture.
Right: The property’s open 16 acres are partially leased to nearby farmers, but the couple regularly hike around the land with their young children on their backs.
“The landscape was really the most important part of the property for us,” says Flicker. “We wanted to maximize the home to feature the land.”
says. “The mantel was as tall as a human being, fussy, and totally out of scale.” The cloying color scheme, faux Colonial and craftsman details, and an awkward TV nook all detracted from the spacious vistas. The ambiance was the opposite of cozy. “Really what was magical about this house was the land,” says Tang. “It’s a really beautiful setting. We felt the space needed to be reoriented to maximize the connection with the landscape. “
Sculptural Stand-off
To soften and simplify the design, Tang began by addressing the home’s most visually and spatially dominant elements—the fireplace and staircase. He removed the craftsman stairwell entirely, and then pushed the staircase opening into a corner of the room. He then reconceived the passage as a less obstructive, single-run design. “This opened the living room and created more usable space,” says Tang, who then rebuilt the new staircase as object d’art. “ We wanted it to feel like a sculpture sitting apart in that space,” says Tang. “So we utilized white oak tabor to create a beautiful textural effect that contrasts the rest of the living room.”
Inspired by Eliel Saarinen’s staircases at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, Tang custom designed sculpted handrails and carved rounded feet. The staircase
landing cleverly conceals the entrance foyer—Tang added a hidden coat closet on the underside of the stairwell that flows seamlessly into the design. “The new staircase clarifies the space and simplifies it,” he says.
The fireplace remodel helped redefine the room, and whole house, aesthetic. “The original fireplace had too many decorative elements that didn’t work well with the scale of the room.” Tang lost the Colonial mantel entirely. “ We wanted something that felt modern but still textured and earthy,” says Tang. “The material choice was key.”
Tang utilized black terracotta brick from Cle Tile for the floor to ceiling length of the fireplace, and then curved the edges to soften the shape. “It has a very rich, matte texture that feels natural and warm but sophisticated,” says Tang. “The fireplace provides another sculptural element that helps ground the space, and draws your eyes to the flame.”
In-house interior designer Barbara Reyes further softened the room’s design by adding a dark velvet Reid Chase sectional and plush swivel chairs in contrasting ivory tones. Domed pendant lights add a warm glow to the intimate space. Tang converted the adjacent TV nook into more streamlined built-in shelving along one wall. Along the other, a custom 16-person dining table looks through rows of French doors, allowing dinner guests to bask in the vista.
Left Top: The kitchen didn’t require extensive renovation, but Tang did update it to echo the colors and textures in the living room. He refinished the cabinets in a dark jewel tone to match the fireplace and added a navy blue-tiled backsplash by Fireclay.
Left Bottom: Tang opened and reoriented the primary bathroom to maximize the calming view. He continued the oak slats and millwork from the home’s staircase into the matching vanities. The giant tub fit perfectly under the window—Tang finished the bath in Milky Way tile by Fireclay.
Right: The first-floor powder room features wallpaper by Cole & Son and Pacific Sea Teal wainscoting and trim. The vanity is walnut and Nero Marquina tile.
Wide, Open Spaces
Elements of the living room’s redesign echo throughout the house. “The kitchen didn’t need a full renovation,” says Tang. “But we worked to make it feel more modern and cohesive within the design.” After replacing the hardware and appliances, Tang repainted the yellow buttercream cabinets in an almost-navy shade, recalling the fireplace tiles. The relocated staircase had freed up space in the kitchen so Tang added a banquette in the reclaimed corner. “ We love having coffee in the morning with our dog,” says Flicker. “The banquette has become a special spot with the same wood finish that ties in with the rest of the home.” The home’s three-and-a half-bathrooms also needed a complete transformation. “In both the guest and primary bathrooms, the original layouts didn’t make sense,” says Tang. “There was a lot of wasted space. We had to take both rooms down to the studs and reorient the layout.” In the guest
bathroom, Tang chose cabinets finished in white oak similar to the staircase trim and matched it with gray and purple stone. “ We wanted to keep the material palette simple but luxurious,” says Tang. “ We focused on texture and contrast. The stone adds depth and the white oak adds warmth. “ Tang also gutted the home’s primary bathroom and then redesigned the space to invite the outdoors in. After removing shelving, he added matching streamlined vanities along opposite walls, both custom crafted from white oak. To further open the room, Tang raised the ceilings, removed window shutters, and reoriented everything towards the view of the Berkshires. Tang sourced an oversized bathtub and placed it window side, then finished the surrounding deck in Vermont slate. The bathroom’s redesign has created a retreat within a retreat. “It feels so spacious,” says Flicker. “It’s so cozy, and such a happy place to be.”
BRING THE OUTDOORS IN
What Your Favorite Season Says About the Paint Colors to Use In Your Home
From sunny yellows to stormy blues, color is one of the quickest ways to set the mood in any space. Choosing the perfect paint color for the kitchen or bedroom from a wall of swatches, however, can be intimidating for even the most savvy DIY-er. One easy (and fun!) way to define the hues that are right for you and your home is to take a few cues from the colors of your favorite season.
“The paint colors you gravitate toward using in your own home are a reflection of your distinct personality, so why not take your inspiration from the season that you feel most at home in?” asks Kim Williams, SVP of Retail Operations at Williams Lumber and Home Centers, an authorized retailer of premium Benjamin Moore paints. With seven locations, including two design centers in Pleasant
Valley and Rhinebeck, Williams has been the go-to for home improvement in the Hudson Valley since 1946. “At Williams, we have all types of customers with different styles and tastes who know that they can rely on our expert team to guide them to design choices they’re sure to love.”
Whether spring’s peppy brightness, summer’s laid-back warmth, autumn’s earthy embrace, or winter’s understated elegance resonates most, there’s a palette of perfect hues to match. Here’s how to choose the Benjamin Moore paint colors that will offer the best of your favorite season, all year long.
SPRING
Those who favor spring are invigorated by its sense of optimism and the promise of a fresh start. Want to bring that budding excitement indoors? Interiors defined by soothing pastel colors offer a refreshing spin on classic neutrals, and create lighthearted spaces that sing with the serenity of a reawakened world.
Paint Colors to Love
Always a favorite, Fernwood Green is a mellow light green with earthy undertones that will provide a calming sense of renewal. Cappuccino, a warm, creamy beige with a faint touch of pink, is a cozy neutral that will add a quietly blooming energy to any room. Looking for a color with a bit more oomph? Windmill Wings, a crisp, cool periwinkle, will call to mind spring’s first flowers even in the middle of winter.
SUMMER
Outgoing, social, and adventurous, summer lovers crave those long, lazy days of summer that provide the freedom to travel, hang out with friends, and soak up time spent outdoors. For that same vibrant-yet-easygoing ambiance at home, look to the lively, invigorating colors of the coast: sky blues; warm, sandy neutrals; and sunset-ready reds and oranges.
Energetic greens and buoyant blues welcome the abundance of spring and summer inside, while calming lilacs, moody grays, and icy blues draw on the dramatic landscapes and contemplative atmosphere of autumn and winter.
Paint Colors to Love
Sunlit Coral, a calming peachy pink that takes its scues from those endless cotton candy sunsets, will definitely add a cheery glow to any room. Want to bask in summer’s expansive midday sky no matter the hour? Opt for Jet Stream, a breezy, buoyant blue with just a touch of lilac. Looking to make a bolder move? Wild Flower is a sophisticated, earthy red that brings to mind elegantly weathered terracotta.
AUTUMN
Autumn aficionados are strong and passionate, and love to bask in the theatricality of the natural world in transition. To bring the season’s winning combination of golden light, fiery foliage, and clear starry nights indoors, lean into a saturated palette of earthy tones that create a rustic, cozy energy.
Paint Colors to Love
Revel in the woodsy, careworn vibes of the season with Bear Creek, a rich, grayish brown that contrasts beautifully with off-whites and creams. A dustier take on a classic burgundy, Sequoia adds just a touch of dynamic color
intensity and violet undertones that are reminiscent of the changing leaves. With its rusty red undertones, Metallic Gold upgrades the concept of neutral and will add an effortless, warming glow to any space.
WINTER
With its stark, sculptural landscapes, winter appeals to those who find comfort in stillness and appreciate a tranquil environment where they can rest and recharge. Welcome the season of reflection inside with cool, serene hues like icy blues, soft grays, and moody greens that recall the quietude of a winter wonderland.
Paint Colors to Love
Hint of Violet, a playful pairing of lilac and gray, feels as plush and warm as a cashmere blanket. A deep graphite green suggestive of a shady alpine forest, Ashwood Moss can create a bold yet grounding statement when used on all four walls or as an accent. Winter Lake, a soothing medium gray with soft blue undertones, provides the earthy richness of blue slate and the calming presence of deep waters.
After buying a Mid-Century Modern house in Kingston that needed a facelift, Amy Rolnick reached out to her childhood friend, architect David Wallance.
GLASS HOUSE GLOW
A Mid-Century Revival in Kingston
By Joan Vos MacDonald
Photos by Eduard Hueber
When Amy Rolnick bought a Mid-Century home in Kingston, she turned to childhood friend David Wallance, to supervise the renovation. Rolnick’s Mid-Century home is tucked neatly between rows of pedigreed Victorian mansions on the city’s historic West Chestnut Street, yet both Rolnick and Wallance have more of an affinity for Mid-Century Modern design. It’s a style they grew up around during their childhood in Crotonon-Hudson.
“My parents were designers,” says Wallance, whose architecture firm Dra/W has constructed award-winning projects from residences to museums, and laboratories to high-rise housing. “Her parents were not designers, but they had an interest in Mid-Century design. We’re talking late `50s, early `60s, that was our childhood. So, we had that common frame of reference.”
Rolnick bought the 1,400-square-foot home in March 2020 in what she describes as a “lightning bolt” decision. Something about the house resonated at a time when she was only thinking about moving north from Savannah. The home had great bones, but its interior was carved into a rabbit warren of rooms.
“When I saw this house, I knew immediately what I would do with it and what I wanted,” says Rolnick. “I knew that I would need an architect for that and I knew that David was the one. I knew that he would get it.”
Given their mutual appreciation of bright modern spaces, it was obvious most of the interior walls would be removed.
“I don’t know whether this sort of partitioned-off room arrangement was something that was added over the years or whether that was there from the beginning,” says Wallance. “But we were able to clear it out and basically restructure half the house to be this generous, open, airy, living, dining, kitchen arrangement.”
Wallance removed a supporting wall, which allowed room for a dining table across from the living room area that now faces a wall of windows looking out onto a tranquil yard.
All Stripped Down
Not being a pedigreed Mid-Century specimen made it easier to reconfigure. “It was a good builder’s house, which in that era took cues from the really good architects,” says Wallance. “But there was less attention toward details and spatial sophistication. So that gave us the freedom to reimagine what we were doing. We didn’t have to stick to a faithful historic restoration.”
One of the walls Wallance removed was a supporting wall, so he bolstered the ceiling with a wooden candelabra beam that also helps define the kitchen space. Once the walls were removed, there was room for a dining room table across from the living area. The expanded informal living space now faces a wall of windows that look out onto the tranquil yard. With so much glass on both sides, the home’s interior glows with sunlight.
“There were four bay windows that were part of the old living room,” says Wallance. “The fifth bay was captured from within one of these small room spaces.”
To further brighten the interior, Wallance stripped the dark brown varnish from the ceiling beams and painted the wood clad ceiling.
“At first, we tried to just strip all the varnish off from everything, but there’s tongue-and-groove planking that is resting on the beams and the little grooves in the tongue-andgroove planking were impossible to strip,” says Wallance. “So we painted the planking white and then stripped the beams and brought them back to their light Douglas fir color. It just absolutely transformed the mood in the space.”
Fortunately, the home’s original floors were still in good shape.
“We kept the original floor, which had a really nice kind of patina quality,” says Wallance. “It registered the age of the house without looking run down. That was really a lucky find.”
People who live in primarily glass houses do have to consider privacy, so the home and front yard was enclosed in a tall fence that creates a sheltered, park-like courtyard.
“I knew I wanted the courtyard,” says Rolnick. “Because I didn’t want to have to blind all these beautiful windows. I wanted the light to come through, but I also knew that I needed a little bit more privacy, so I didn’t scare the neighbors when I was wandering into the kitchen in the morning for coffee.”
The compound-like fence, which extends almost to the curb, is fashioned from Western red cedar that received a pale transparent stain. It required a zoning variance because it’s taller than the mandated four feet.
“I’ve used Western red cedar in a lot of my work,” says Wallance. “It’s a wood that was used by a lot of mid-century architects, like Breuer. The vertical patterning is very typical of mid-century houses. I didn’t want a uniform color or grain. I was trying to get variation in the grain from board to board to create some texture. Western red cedar is a very rot-resistant durable material.”
Easy Access
To add living space, Wallance transformed an adjacent garage into a guest bedroom with its own door and deck access. “I knew I would turn this very derelict garage into a guest suite,”
says Rolnick. “And I knew David would get it. The very first time he walked into the house, he looked around and it was really in sad shape. But he looked at it and he went, ‘Oh, Amy!’ He was romanced by the house.”
The surrounding fence was integrated with the form of the house to establish one cohesive idea. As a result, the garageturned-guest suite opens out onto the courtyard, so guests can quietly enjoy the yard by themselves.
“I wanted to activate that courtyard by fronting the guest bedroom onto it and having a little sort of deck,” says Wallance. “Kind of a front porch for the guest bedroom.”
While the interior was gutted, Wallance took measures to improve the home’s energy profile. “We stripped everything down to the studs, took all the old windows out and insulated the walls to current energy code standards, even beyond, actually,” says Wallance. “We put a new layer of insulation on the roof and installed high-performance windows with low E glass and then replaced the heating system with a new heat pump HVAC system.”
Rolnick wanted the home to be accessible, so the renovation removed any barriers. “There are no door jambs or anything,” says Rolnick. “There’s nothing to trip over and everything is on one floor.”
She expressed her dislike of curtain rods, so Wallance created a distinctive trim to surround the doors and windows. “They frame out the details of the house beautifully and hide the curtain tracks over the windows,” said Rolnick.
On the Light Side
For Wallance, the best part of renovating the Kingston house is hearing how much Rolnick likes living there. It’s music to his ears. “What I love most about the house is that it’s suffused with light even on the darkest winter days,” says Rolnick. “The postman came up to me and said, ‘It’s so beautiful to look inside your house, because it’s almost all glass, so it’s pretty transparent.’ I gave him a tour and he was talking about how the light pouring in from all angles made a huge difference.”
The challenges involved in renovating a home can put a strain on any friendship. Not so for Wallance and his client. “I think there was a strong bond that got us through the usual rough spots that occur in any renovation process,” says Wallance. “We remain friends. So, that was a success.”
Rolnick describes the collaboration as a “joy and a wonder. After knowing each other for more than 60 years, we got to do this together. Who would have imagined it when we were kids in nursery school together?”
The home’s original floors were still in good shape when Rolnick moved in.
“We kept the original floor, which had a really nice kind of patina quality,” says Wallance. “It registered the age of the house without looking run down. That was really a lucky find.”
Architect Matthew Bremer can sum up his firm’s philosophy in a few simple words: “No two projects are ever alike.” Architecture in Formation practices what he describes as an “architecture of responsiveness,” which considers both the needs of the client and the community. As a result, his diverse resume includes high-end homes and visionary affordable housing, sleek modern dwellings and creatively adapted historic buildings. He sees every project as an opportunity to explore.
“I clearly didn’t go into architecture for the money or for a calm, relaxed, worry-free lifestyle,” laughs Bremer. “I went into it because it is fundamentally a messy, neverending labor of love. It’s about constant exploration and learning. One thing that has truly evolved in our practice is that we are really a values-driven firm.”
Those values include authenticity, integrity, beauty, a playful sense of humor, and dedicating a significant portion of the work to socially conscious projects.
Bremer is proud that over 50 percent of the firm’s portfolio is with nonprofit organizations or in the affordable housing sector, but that’s not to say he doesn’t enjoy designing highend projects as well. Such work, which he calls a “not-so-guilty pleasure,” provides an opportunity to explore new concepts, materials, and technologies.
A memorable example is his design of the Viewfinder Compound on St. Kitts, an extended family compound in the Caribbean. Artfully echoing its natural island surroundings, the multi-level luxury home fits neatly into the hilly landscape, and is defined by a highly tactile stone interior and exterior walls.
the dirt and the ground and the mountain,” says Bremer. “The guest wing is entirely buried underground into the mountain, with the main house rising out of the rocks above. Below that is a series of terraces. There’s a caretaker’s cottage that sits underneath the parking court, which is on the level of the pool area.”
The fantasy-making modern house stands in direct contrast with Bremer’s own home, a historic former church in the tiny hamlet of Phillipsport that demonstrates his adaptive reuse skills. He purchased the 200-yearold building in 2016, and his subsequent renovation landed it in the New York Times, Architectural Digest, and among Vogue’s 10 favorite upstate Airbnbs. The picture book exterior has aged gracefully. The sunny interior is now crisply modern, a home-assanctuary with 14-foot-high windows and 20-foot-high ceilings. “People are always blown away when they see it in person after the photos,” says Bremer. “It’s so cozy. It’s actually really big, but it’s warm, intimate, and inviting.
To make the soaring former church more energy efficient, Bremer added extra insulation; an energy-recovery system to capture and use energy that would otherwise be lost; and added storm sashes in lieu of removing the historic windows to capture additional heating value—techniques he’s become adept at employing in his more ambitious Passive House projects.
Now that he’s happily settled into the Hudson Valley himself, Bremer is building and adapting more homes in the area that line up neatly with the firm’s values: “We’re really out to create community, and just simply leave the world a better place than we found it.”
“All of the floors are concrete with a lot of the local aggregate from the site ground into the floor, so that it very much becomes the color of ARCHITECTURE IN FORMATION’S AUTHENTIC APPROACH TO
Aifny.com
Above: The interior of Matthew Bremer’s church-turned-home. Bottom left: Matthew Bremer’s home, an historic former church in Phillipsport.
Bottom right: The Viewfinder Compound on St. Kitts.
CURATING COZY
THE UPSTATE CURIOUS TEAM’S PICKS FOR WINTER AT HOME
With several months of nesting on the horizon, the winter season brings a longing for comfort, warmth, and a refreshed curation of the home that will keep spirits high until spring. What better way to improve a home’s atmosphere during these cozy-making months than by adding a few inspired interior design finds and thoughtful products handcrafted by local makers or carried by one of the many independently owned boutiques throughout the Hudson Valley and Catskills?
“We have an amazing community of makers, artists, and indie businesses that offer carefully curated products,” says Megan Brenn-White, associate real estate broker and founder of the Upstate Curious Team at Compass. “These artisans and sellers are all part of what makes it so much fun to explore different towns around our region. You can visit these folks at their studios or get to know local shopkeepers—each offering a wealth of potential ways to spruce up your space.”
Brenn-White is no stranger to what makes a house a home. With a team of 23 agents covering 12 counties across the Hudson Valley and Catskills and more than 600 clients served, Upstate Curious has quickly risen to become one
of the area’s most trusted real estate teams for buying and selling a home, which requires plenty of panache in the styling department.
“We represent listings with a high level of design, and our buyers have equally high aesthetic preferences,” she says. “We often help sellers make value-enhancing renovations, but we thought it would be a great idea to create our own Styling Library too—a resource from which to pull when homes just need a little extra something. It’s still a work in progress, but our goal is to build a collection of local, vintage, and handcrafted items categorized by design aesthetic, making it easy for our agents to curate from a large variety of items like pillows, throws, artwork, tableware, and more, and augment them with organic items like plants, fruit, and flowers that make a house feel more alive.”
Constantly crisscrossing the region to work with clients has given Brenn-White and her team a keen eye for items that are reflective of a diverse sense of place. From purveyors in always-hip Hudson to the rural rolling hills of Delhi, here are the Upstate Curious Team’s top picks for creating a cozy, welcoming vibe at home this winter.
The living room of an antique farmhouse in Fleischmanns is the epitome of cozy. The owner Alex Nino is the head of her own eponymous design company, Alex Nino Designs, and was able to put her stamp on this casual country home she owns with a friend. The property is currently listed (as of November 2024) by Hillary Kolos at the Upstate Curious Team at Compass.
Mugs from Lail Design Catskill Lail.design
Made by master ceramicist Brad Lail, these durable, hand-thrown ceramics feature a minimalistic design intended to remain timeless and original glazes that range from neutral to softly vibrant.
“Part of my morning ritual is making pour-over coffee and sitting in my favorite chair with my favorite ceramic mug, handmade by Lail Design. It’s one of those heavy, feels-good-in-your-hands mugs—that also holds a lot of coffee. Their pieces also make the perfect housewarming gifts!”
—Kate Quintard, licensed real estate salesperson
Maple Cardamom Soap from Phoenicia Soap Co.
Shokan Phoeniciasoap.com
This plant-based body and face care line is made with oils infused with botanicals wild-crafted or sustainably grown in the Catskills, and without the use of harmful colorants and ingredients. Add a hint of delicious seasonality to the ritual of handwashing with this soap, which smells of warm baking spices.
Milestone Mill Beans Kingston Milestonemill.com
Nothing says comfort like a pot of good, brothy beans simmering on the stove. Started as a project of the Hudson Valley Farm Hub, Milestone Mill is bringing sustainably grown, nutritionally complex grains back to the table. They also make flour, corn meal, popping corn, corn tortillas, and tortilla chips.
Cozy Tea from the Herbal Scoop Narrowsburg Theherbalscoop.com
This top-selling tea is intended for digestive ease and promoting a sense of calm, and is made from a blend of chamomile, ginger, holy basil, linden, orange peel, maypop, and peppermint.
“As soon as the temperature drops, I’ve got the kettle on and Catskill Cozy tea ready to brew. There’s something about the smell and color that relaxes me even before I take a sip. The business owner is committed to high-quality ingredients and sources (or grows!) a lot locally, which also matters to me.”
—Megan Brenn-White, founder and CEO
Catskillscandlestudio.com
Founder Nicole Andrick combines her design sensibility with inspiration from the Catskills region to create fragrances reminiscent of wooded trails, fireside nights, and year-round botanicals.
“A really special, well-made candle is a go-to gift, and it makes me so happy that Catskills Candle Studio is local and woman-owned! Campfire + Fir Is my favorite for when I want to feel like being immersed in the mountains while wrapped up in a blanket on my couch.”
—Hillary Kolos, licensed real estate salesperson
Arc Throw from Minna Hudson Minna-goods.com
Designed locally and handwoven by artisans in Momostenango, Guatemala, the pillows, rugs, and wool throws sold by Minna are made from handspun wool with sustainably crafted dyes. This throw features an extra-cozy felted look, perfect for chilly mornings.
Catskill
Candles from Catskill Candle Studio Tannersville
Vito the Cat Pillow from The Falls High Falls Thefalls.store
The Falls fuses found fashion with artful embellishment to create distinctive and limitedrun pieces that are inspiring and unexpected. This embroidered, natural linen throw pillow is sure to lift the mood during the coldest months of the year.
“Sometimes the best decor is the type that doesn’t fit one aesthetic, but just makes you happy. This one is probably the single favorite item in my house because it cracks me up.”
—Megan Brenn-White, founder and CEO
Beginner Crochet Class with Cal Patch
Virtual Calpatch.com
There are few things more cozy than wiling away the winter making knitwear. Learn all about the art of crochet with Accord-based clothing designer and teacher Cal Patch while snug at home. This online class teaches everything from yarn and hook selection to foundation stitches and finishing off.
Sheepskin from LoveLamb
Hamden
Lovelambny.com
Farmer and fiber artist Jess Ludwicki sources wool locally from fiber farms across New York and New Mexico to create LoveLamb’s sheepskins and fleeces. Many of LoveLamb’s cruelty-free fleeces are made by piecing together shorn fleece by hand using ancient felting techniques.
The uncommon goods and fantastical botanicals at Hort & Pott will definitely lend some drama to a home’s interior design. Find decorative statement pieces including candleholders, vases, and more, including vintage and artisan-crafted items.
“Their one-of-a-kind pieces, especially the stunning seasonal candlesticks, are my go-to for creating a cozy atmosphere, and it’s an easy way to change things up at home!”
—Jocelyn Justiniano, licensed real estate salesperson
Fruitionchocolateworks.com
Rich, velvety, and locally made, Catskills chocolate mavens Fruition Chocolate have elevated traditional hot cocoa with a sipping chocolate crafted with their signature Dominican origin dark chocolate and Tanzanian cocoa powder.
“There are few things more cozy than hot chocolate, and Fruition makes the finest. Top with locally made Hudson Valley Marshmallow Co. marshmallows for a truly indulgent cup.”
—Megan Brenn-White, founder and CEO
Hot Tub from Hudson Hot Tubs
Tivoli
Hudsonhottubs.com
Created by John Cox, the founder of Quercus, a barrel and tank cooperage, these rustic yet sleek hot tubs are made with a similar design used in crafting barrels and tanks for the craft spirit industry. These handmade red cedar hot tubs can be customized to meet a diverse range of lifestyle needs.
Candlesticks from Hort & Pott
Sipping Chocolate by Fruition Chocolate Works Shokan
County Shopgreatindoors.com
Founded as an antiques boutique by Benjamin Davidson and Pippa Biddle, Quittner has become a haven for lighting and homewares rooted in traditional form while providing a distinctively heritage aesthetic. Snuggle up with a good book under this porcelain and brass lamp.
Apple Brandy from Klocke Estate Claverack
Klocke-estate.com
Klocke Estate Distillery is fairly new to the region, but already garnering scores of loyal visitors thanks to its high-quality brandy and vermouth, fine dining restaurant, and picturesque facility and grounds. Its first product, an apple brandy, is a limited-batch spirit made with apples grown on-site.
Raw materials developer Amina Iman and designer and musician Connor Mikita operate Great Indoors from their homebase in the Catskills and work with manufacturers in Portugal to produce their organic terry robes and towels. These graphic green-andwhite robes are eye-catching and size-inclusive.
Wittus.com
This indoor stove can unite a space with coziness and light, a panacea for dark winter nights. Made from black steel, the sleek design fits in any sized home. Sit close to the fire with loved ones or set the spirit for holiday parties. Find it and other European-designed hearth products at Wittus Stove.
The Upstate Curious Team’s Top Picks for Wintertime Fun
Need a break from all that hygge at home? Make an escape for some fresh mountain air or settle in for farm-totable eats and locally crafted drinks.
Cross country skiing at Minnewaska State Park
“This is such a great spot for cross country skiing—so peaceful!”
—Jocelyn Justiniano
Tubing, Curling, and Fat Tire Biking at Bearpen Mountain Sports
“An amazing, family-run spot with a nice lodge with a bar and cozy fire pits outside.”
—Hillary Kolos
Snowshoeing and Winter Hiking at Slide Mountain
“It’s especially magical to snowshoe through the evergreens after a fresh snowfall.”
—Kristen Jock
West Kill Brewing, West Kill
“There’s a nice hike at the end of the road, and you can reward yourself with a beer after!”
—Jon Blanc
Stissing House, Pine Plains
“Some of the best winter vibes of any restaurant I’ve ever been to, and the menu is culinary excellence.”
—Craig Smith
Cauldron Bar at Butterfield, Stone Ridge
“Great for apres ski, with fondue and hot toddies next to the toasty fire cauldrons.”
—Megan Brenn-White
Bird and Bottle Inn, Garrison
“Sitting at the cozy bar at this historic, restored inn is just perfection.”
—Diana Polack
Shaker Grill from Wittus Pound Ridge
Library Lamp from Quittner Lighting Germantown Quittnerhome.com
Spectre Robe from Great Indoors Sullivan
FLY OVER COUNTRY
A modernist home that takes its design cues from its skytop location
By Mary Angeles Armstrong
Photos courtesy of Gates Merkulova Architects
Paul Gates’s first visits to the Mid-Hudson Valley had him looking skyward. “My father used to bring us up here [from Westchester] to visit the Rhinebeck Aerodrome for the airshows,” he explains. “Even then I was taken by the beauty of the area.” It’s probable that, on one of those visits, as one of the airshow ’s historic, open-cockpit biplanes looped across the sky, the plane passed right over Turkey Hill, where Gates, an architect, would one day build his modernist take on a simplified nature retreat. The home and studio, two shed-like structures clad in black metal and tucked against the hilltop tree line, merge contemporary design with the natural rhythm of sunlight, open skies, and surrounding fields.
The design’s simplicity is deceiving. Sited carefully on the hilltop, the 2,200-square-foot main house and separate 500-square-foot studio were calculated precisely to maximize efficiency and erase the boundary between the interior and setting. The buildings and their layout draw on a lifetime of design influences gleaned from Gates’s time working on both coasts and abroad.
“The house is unabashedly modern,” says Gates. “It’s a composition of prismatic forms set in juxtaposition to the landscape and arranged in a clear, simple plan.”
Overlooking the Hudson River and Catskills, architect Paul Gates designed a nature retreat and work studio for himself with a decidedly modernist edge. “It’s conceived as a sculptural object set into the landscape, backgrounded by a tree line,” says Gates. “Simple shed roofs and continuous black metal cladding with punched windows emphasize the prismatic volumes.”
Photo: Paul Warchol
Rhinebeck Residence
Left: A Japanese-style moss garden and breezeway separates the living space from Gates’ studio. “The idea of separating the house and the studio—live and work—by the small moss garden was inspired by the Eames house,” says gates. “It provides a psychological distance between the two activities.”
Right: The north-facing living room is oriented toward the valley-wide views; Gates added a south facing skylight for winter light. “This house exploits its relationship to the landscape, but it’s compact and efficient,” says Gates. Along the room’s western wall a live-edge walnut plank sourced from Ghent is “akin to a tokonoma,” says Gates, referencing a recessed space in Japanese-style reception room for displaying art objects.
The angled roofs, calculated for maximum solar harvesting and to capture the expansive northern views, mimic the hawks constantly swooping over the surrounding fields. “The structure is designed like an airplane wing,” explains Gates. “ We had to add 25 bolts holding the house into the earth so it doesn’t fly away.”
Sky Scraping
Gates began studying architecture in Southern California, where he first encountered the region’s iconic Case Study Houses, a series of modernist homes that blurred indoor and outdoor living and maximized grand views. It was one of his earliest inspirations. “I studied with one of the Case Study architects, Pierre Koenig, who was a huge influence on me,” he says. “I learned that architecture needs to be harmonious with its place in every sense of the word; socially, environmentally, and technically.”
After completing his master’s degree at Princeton, Gates began his career designing skyscrapers for Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates. The job took him to Tokyo, where he spent time in the nearby mountains and developed a deep appreciation for traditional Japanese architectural design. “The whole Japanese notion of architecture, of artifice and nature, intrigued me,” he explains. “They are always integrating nature into everything they do. Not necessarily stylistically, but conceptually.” Gates eventually started his own firm in New York City, Gates Merkulov Architects, designing a range of commercial, mixed use, and residential projects.
North by West by East
As his business grew, Gates regularly began returning north, where he rediscovered his love for the region during hiking trips through both the Catskills and Berkshires. He began sporadically looking for properties where he could design his own retreat, combining the architectural concepts he’d learned in his career into one residential project.
In 2018, he decided to take his dream seriously. “I thought, ‘If I’m going to do this, I’ve got to do it,’” he says. “I really put my nose to the grindstone and searched for the right place.” Initially, with the intent of finding a buildable five-to-10 acre parcel, Gates looked at more than 30 properties with no luck. “I wasn’t looking for a huge view,” he explains. “But I did want a sense of space. “
The 60-acre plot covering most of Turkey Hill was much larger than he’d imagined taking on. A dairy farm through the 1930s, the secluded property was most recently used as a hunting club, and briefly as a gravel mine. Most remnants of its former incarnations were long erased—except for a 19thcentury stone gate at the property ’s entrance. “The gate is actually the stone abutments of the Rhinebeck to Connecticut Railroad built in 1870,” says Gates. “They removed the railroad and bridge in the 1930s but left the stone walls, which form a monumental entrance to the property that feels very private.”
Inside the gate, the property is comprised of three large fields separated by topography and tree lines that lend privacy to each. Gates loved the otherworldly feel of the hill, as well as the Roeliff Jansen Kill, which formed a natural border along the bottom edge of the site. But it was the vista that really pulled him in. “The view is spectacular,” he says. “It spans the entire Catskill range and north up the Hudson Valley.” After a year of negotiating, Gates closed on the property a week before the Covid lockdown. Then he began the work of designing a property for the site. “That was a real adventure,” he explains.
Watching Shadows on the Wall
The home’s form draws from Gates’s early experiences with the Case Study Houses, but conceptually reimagined for a northern climate. “It’s not California,” says Gates. “But there’s a similar openness to the air and light.” To achieve the same open flow, Gates turned away from the hot, dry climate of the West Coast, and looked northward—specifically to Nordic design principles that revel in nature by establishing a sense of place and sustainability through design. “I designed the house with clean lines and minimal ornamentation, reflecting the Scandinavian aesthetic of letting the landscape speak for itself,” he explains. “ We also relied on natural materials like wood and bluestone to create a warm, inviting atmosphere that complements the natural beauty of our region.”
Sustainability was also a prevailing requirement when designing the house. “Sustainability was an important consideration, both for practical maintenance purposes and for environmental reasons,” says Gates. “I wanted to enjoy living in the house, not working on its upkeep.” Gates incorporated highefficiency radiant heat and poured concrete floors throughout the structure. The high-density wall and ceiling insulation
ADIRONDACK
ADIRONDACK
ADIRONDACK DESIGN ARCHITECTURE
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FRO M CO U NT RY ESTATES , TO SOP HISTICATED
TOWN HOUSE S , AND RUSTIC R ET REATS .
Left: Gates added the black-and-white porcelain backsplash to the kitchen to contrast the kitchen from the open living room area. “I love to cook, so the kitchen was an important design element for me,” says Gates. The streamlined space has ample room for Gates to roll up his sleeves. “I’ve been able to make Thanksgiving dinner for bunches of friends here. “
Right: Inspired by his early years working in Japan, Gates designed the guest bathroom to be a spa-like environment. “The guest bathroom breaks with the neutrality of the home’s overall palette,” says gates. “The large soaking tub is set in a wood-and-volcanic tile-clad room overlooking the distant landscape.”
exceeds New York State standards by 50 percent. “The investment in quality materials was essential to achieve the design goals,” he says. “Their cost of the additional insulation is outweighed by the energy savings in the long run.” Gates also incorporated triple-glazed windows and glass sliders throughout both structures. In the living room, a large, southfacing skylight captures natural light in the winter and has a roller shade for low-tech cooling in summer.
Two double-height volumes anchor the opposing ends of the main house, both facing the northern view. “The doubleheight rooms act as light boxes, tracking the movement of the sun over the course of the day,” says Gates. At the western end of the house, the open living room and kitchen have panoramic sunset views. “The finishes lean industrial, but they are not raw,” he says. “ White walls and concrete floors provide a neutral background to the furnishings and art.”
The open chef ’s kitchen features a dramatic black-and-white patterned porcelain tile backsplash to add visual interest to the open-concept living room. A large rectangular island separates the living room and kitchen and adds an extra worktop. “I love to cook, so the kitchen was an important design element for me,” says Gates. “It’s both its own discrete working area and a part of the social space of the main living area.” Outside, a barbeque and herb garden form an outdoor room.
At the eastern end of the home, the primary bedroom also incorporates large sliders and plenty of natural light. The bedroom annex, also finished in neutral tones, includes a walk-through closet and primary bathroom. “Simplicity and calm rule the interior design,” says Gates. “By highlighting
simple forms and details, and a connection to the daily rhythm of nature, the bedroom has a contemplative and inspiring atmosphere.”
Corner of the Sky
The space between the two main volumes is divided into two stories. The second-floor guest room and first floor library share the home’s north-facing view. Gates drew from his time in Japan to create the spa-like guest bathroom, which references Japanese hot springs, known as onsens “ When I was in Japan I’d often stay an extra weekend without telling anyone my plans,” he says. “In my extra time I’d go up to the mountains to visit different onsens. Often I was the only Westerner there.” To capture the feeling of the traditional Japanese bath houses, Gates added an oversized soaking tub and surrounded it with locally sourced stones, volcanic tile, and wood accents. “It’s a kind of secret realm with a spectacular view,” he says.
Gates divided the home and southern-oriented work studio behind it. Between the two buildings, a Japanese-inspired moss garden acts as a natural hallway transitioning between live and work areas. Gates composed the studio with the same sustainable and understated elements as the main house— with one distinction. “I purposely oriented the workspace away from the view,” he says. “So I could actually get some work done.” But Gates couldn’t entirely escape the hilltop’s predominant feature. The studio’s northern window looks across the moss garden, through the bedroom’s south- and north-oriented windows, to capture a glimpse of the sky.
Photo by: Nils Schlebusch
2025 CLEAN POWER GUIDE
Welcome to the 2025 Clean Power Guide. We are here to help you make complex choices your way and take advantage of the stunning advances in both clean energy technology and economics. The cost of solar continues to fall, and heat pumps have outsold gas furnaces for the second year in a row. But as the Inflation Reduction Act and New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act show increasing impacts, political confusion can spill over into consumers’ newsfeeds and create an extra layer of fact-finding homework. And in this fast-moving marketplace, there are more diverse choices than ever. We hope this resource continues to support empowered consumer action. It’s the patriotic thing to do.
—Melissa Everett, PhD, executive director, Sustainable Hudson Valley
From Policy to Reality
“We are blowing through our carbon budget the way an addict blows through cash.”
—Dr. Robert Howarth, Cornell University Professor of Ecology and Environmental Biology
Right now, the biggest commitments to action in New York are reflected in two major laws, New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) and the federal Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Both are in a class by themselves in terms of ambitious vision and financial investment to stop the emissions that are destabilizing the climate. Both are first big steps on a longer path of freeing economic prosperity from fossil fuel dependency.
In 2019, New York passed the CLCPA, a commitment to transformation of the state’s economy to operate on renewable energy supported by efficiency and battery storage. The law did not just set goals but established actual requirements to be met by suppliers of energy and transportation systems, industry—everybody—to decarbonize most of the way by 2040 and completely by 2050. State government, across agencies, was designated as the responsible party to make it happen with appropriate resources and policies.
With the passage of the CLCPA, state government quickly geared up to commission and permit transmission lines for large flows of renewable energy, create an Office of Renewable Energy Siting to sort out land use disputes, direct the utilities to
plan for grid upgrades, and commission the first offshore wind installations—which has already resulted in turbines turning on the first Long Island wind farm.
The result is an infusion of money and help to make it fairly easy to insulate, go solar, install a heat pump, choose an EV, upgrade your wiring if needed, and look back without regret on the minor hassles that gave rise to your efficient, cheap-to-operate, fossil-free life.
The Federal Inflation Reduction Act adds benefits. There is even a Direct Pay program so that nonprofits can access benefits similar to tax credits without paying taxes, and a whole suite of programs to improve the economics of clean energy in historically marginalized communities. And the IRA has a wider impact, funding a wide range of technologies, including grid modernization hardware and software for the utilities.
With the passage of the CLCPA, New York launched a structured planning process for implementing the policies and programs that would make it realistic for home owners, business owners, and industry to comply. The DEC and NYSERDA created a Climate Action Council representing most state agencies, industry, and community interests. Stakeholders across the spectrum, from the trucking industry to the New York City Environmental Justice Coalition, were in the room as options were discussed and a policy framework—called the Scoping Plan— was created. It was refined after 20,000 public comments were received. DEC was directed
to publish a regulatory framework linking the rubber to the road, by January of 2023. That framework has not emerged.
In spite of the money on the street and the widespread proof of possibility, politically, the CLCPA is in the doldrums. This is a result of two kinds of pushback: honest and cynical. There is room for honest people to wonder how millions upon millions of buildings and the entire electric grid will be decarbonized so fast. There is honest concern about “energy sprawl” among farming, historic, and community interests.
In spite of the money on the street and the widespread proof of possibility, politically, the CLCPA is in the doldrums. This is a result of two kinds of pushback: honest and cynical. Honest people can wonder how millions upon millions of buildings and the entire electric grid will be decarbonized so fast, or how to protect rural communities from “energy sprawl.”
But there has also been a cynical stirring of the pot, including a campaign by front organizations traced to the gas and propane industries, claiming literally that arms of the state would be confiscating furnaces. In reality, what we have so far are a few model local laws, such as Beacon’s, requiring heat pumps for new construction. So far, these have not caused a ripple because building contractors are learning that heat pumps work fine.
The CLCPA has opened a pipeline of funding and technical assistance to help all of us reduce our footprint, if we are willing to invest some time in understanding how to capture the opportunities.
South Fork Wind, a 12-turbine, 132 megawatt offshore wind farm powering over 70,000 homes on Long Island, came online earlier this year.
Energy Upgrades 101 Assessing Your Home and Choosing a Contractor
By Melinda McKnight, Owner and CEO, Energy Conservation Services, Inc.
The transition off fossil fuels can be a challenging journey. How does a homeowner navigate the marketplace and ensure that any improvements you decide to make will create the desired outcome? How do you protect your resources and investment? Knowledge is power. Start with a comfort and energy assessment, also referred to as an energy audit. This should be performed by a professional who is:
• Certified by the Building Performance Institute (which takes a systems approach to buildings).
• Familiar with the materials and methods used to improve comfort, efficiency, health and safety.
• Knowledgeable and experienced in applying Building Science and, therefore, most able to assist property owners by setting appropriate and specific priorities.
When considering a company to perform your comfort and efficiency improvements, make sure they are:
• Committed to industry-specific “best practices” in air sealing, ventilation, and insulation.
• Dedicated to developing solutions designed specifically to achieve your goals and to address your individual needs—not a “onesize-fits-all” insulation installer, but one who offers you options and describes the
reasons for them.
• Knowledgeable about how to safely and effectively improve comfort, efficiency, health, and safety for building occupants
• Able to achieve tangible improvements to the building envelope, and able to help homeowners become “heat pump ready”— if that is your eventual goal.
When you are ready to move forward with hiring contractors of any kind, consider whether they:
• Possess any necessary licenses or are accredited with industry-specific trade organizations. For example, the Building Performance Institute (BPI) Certification and Accreditation is the nationally recognized credential for the Building Performance Industry. The North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP) is a recognized credential for solar professionals.
• Warranty their work for a minimum of one year. Credentialing agencies, such as the Building Performance Institute require a “Dispute Resolution Policy” to be submitted with every renewal of the company-wide accreditation. No such requirement exists for certified professionals not associated with an accredited company.
• Carry general liability, disability and workers’ compensation insurance (for all
Before making any decisions about transitioning off fossil fuels, homeowners should start with a home energy audit.
employees) and can provide certificates of insurance.
• Provide references and/or testimonials.
• Are committed to quality and treat their employees well, because a positive workplace culture is more likely to result in an excellent work product.
• Obtain building permits from the municipality where the property is located and ensure that all work complies with local and state building and energy codes.
The best protection for consumers who hire contractors is to perform their due diligence before signing a contract. If a contract has already been signed, New York State mandates that all companies provide consumers with three days to withdraw.
Once upgrades have been performed— whatever they may be—if there were issues with work quality or contract compliance, the only recourse is to try to resolve them after the fact. The Office of the New York State Attorney General provides some oversight of consumer protections, and free educational resources on their website at Ag.ny.gov. These include extensive resources about home solar and about contractors and home maintenance. Another option is to file a lawsuit (although statutes of limitations apply). An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Do your homework and enjoy the results!
Heat pumps got big boost this year as expanded rebates were made available through NYSERDA’s Empower+ program.
Next Steps for Clean Energy
A Conversation with Tom Konrad on Green Economy Trends
Tom Konrad manages a clean energy-focused hedge fund for Investment Research Partners in Lermont, Pennsylvania, as well as being an energy coach for New Yorkers for Clean Power and the Chair of the Environmental Conservation Commission for the Town of Marbletown. He sat down to discuss trends he’s seeing in the clean energy space.
What’s happening with EVs? Sales trends? Rebates?
Electric vehicle (EV) sales have been less than expected for most US-based EV manufacturers. Tesla has been slow to launch a new model, and other manufacturers were overly optimistic about the speed of the transition to electric. The rapid growth in EV sales has outpaced the build-out of chargers, especially in California, if less so in New York. National stories about difficulty charging while traveling have drained the batteries of the shift to electric vehicles, which is now accelerating more like a 1980s diesel Rabbit than a Porsche Taycan. With auto manufacturers needing to convince a newly skeptical public, now is a good time to buy an EV. There is also a tax credit or upfront rebate for EV purchases—$7,500 for new EVs and $4,000 for used EVs. The used market is strong, but finding a used EV to buy can be tricky, since we were buying a lot fewer EVs three years ago. EV growth is still rapid, just less rapid than carmakers thought it would be.
What are we seeing in larger scale solar?
Commercial scale solar is slowing due to the difficulty of interconnection—a big challenge for building more large-scale solar installations is interconnection with the grid. The “low-hanging
fruit” of good spots for solar developments to connect to the grid easily has been used up, making it harder and more expensive to connect new solar installations. This will be a significant barrier to achieving the New York Climate Leadership and Protection Act goal of 70 percent renewable electricity by 2030. The issue is more challenging the larger the installation is, particularly when the solar farm is measured in megawatts, not kilowatts.
What are you seeing in heat pump adoption and home energy improvements?
Heat pump installation continues to be strong. The pace of heat pump adoption is largely driven by the replacement of air conditioners and boilers. The good news is market share. The percentage of people making the mistake of reinstalling a furnace or boiler instead of replacing it with a heat pump is dropping. There are also fewer people installing new air conditioners that are not heat pumps.
One big boost for both heat pumps and the insulation industry is the expanded rebates available through NYSERDA’s Empower+ program. These funds came from the federal Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed by the Democrats in 2022 and signed by President Biden. New York was the first state to implement the low and moderate income rebates in the IRA, and that money went into expanding Empower+.
There may also be new technologies coming that make retrofitting older systems easier, like modern electric boilers that could replace the oil boiler in a home with baseboard heat. These are heat pump based, air-to-water heat pumps. These are already used in Europe and policy changes may open the market here.
What are municipalities doing?
There are increasing investments in clean energy by local municipal governments, particularly in EV chargers and medium scale solar installations. There is some progress in transitioning municipal and county vehicle fleets to electric. Electric buses are heavy vehicles requiring level 3 chargers, meaning that bus charging depots can be delayed by the same interconnection issues plaguing solar.
What new consumer tech are you excited about?
There are new induction stoves with built-in batteries from Channing Copper Co and Impulse Labs that could facilitate easier retrofits. These only need the standard 120 volt outlet that even gas stoves require to operate their controls and lighters. While they are not cheap, they can be a more affordable option compared to an electrical upgrade, which can cost thousands of dollars in difficult cases.
The falling cost of batteries and expanded tax credits are making home battery systems a more viable alternative to a generator. These systems, as well as the induction ranges with batteries mentioned above, qualify for a 30 percent federal tax credit due to the Inflation Reduction Act.
What are the job opportunities going to be for Clean Tech?
There will continue to be a large shortage in the electrician, plumbing and HVAC trades. These jobs pay extremely well without needing a college degree. Transitioning to solar, EVs, and heat pumps requires us to expand our skilled trade workforce, which was already in short supply.
WIRED FOR CHANGE
What’s Now and What’s Next in EVs
BY STEVE WEHR
Steve Wehr is a retired IBM senior engineer, an EV coach for New Yorkers for Clean Power, and a member of the Town of Hyde Park Climate Smart committee. Wehr spends all day nerding out on electric vehicles, charging, renewable energy, and battery technology, so you don’t have to.
When I bought my first EV in 2019 there were about four car brands selling EVs. Now there are at least 45 fully electric models for sale in the US, from every car brand. From subcompacts, to pickup trucks, to three-row SUVs, there is an EV for sale today to fit every family and budget. I was one of the first in my town with an EV, but now there are over 250,000 EVs on the roads of New York and over 45,000 right here in the Hudson Valley.
Since the first Nissan Leaf rolled off the assembly line in 2010, EVs have been changing rapidly. Once exclusively expensive “luxury” vehicles, many EVs today are priced below the average new car. In fact the best-selling car in the world in 2023 was the fully electric Tesla Model Y. There are now six new EV models priced under $40,000, before incentives. And you can find many used EVs for $15-$25,000, before incentives.
The incentives have changed too. Current incentives are no longer tax credits, but are
deducted from the sale price by the car dealer. EVs that are assembled in the US, with batteries made mostly in the US, are eligible for $7,500 off the purchase price. New York offers an additional $2,000 off the purchase price. This means some EVs get instant rebates up to $9,500. Used EVs get a $4,000 instant rebate.
These powerful rebates have incentivized manufacturers to build their cars and batteries in the US. Dozens of auto and battery companies are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in new factories in the US, creating hundreds of thousands of new manufacturing jobs.
EV chargers are popping up everywhere. You will see fast chargers at all the rebuilt rest stops along the Thruway, and along other major highways. Most states have finished their plans to use the federal government funding from the Inflation Reduction Act to build EV charging, and we are now seeing new fast chargers along most major US highways.
And at long last, EVs are converging to use one common charging plug, instead of the two different plugs we’ve always had. The Tesla charging plug will be on all new US EVs starting in 2025 or 26, and all car brands will be able to use many Tesla supercharger stations in addition to combined charging system stations.
Battery tech is improving too. The lithium-ion
battery is still king, but there are new types of that battery, called LFP (lithium iron phosphate), that offer cheaper prices, better cold weather performance, increased safety, and do not used nickel or cobalt. These batteries are in about 50 percent of the EVs made today. Huge new lithium deposits in the western US promise to continue lowering the cost of EV batteries.
For the last several years, we have heard that solid state batteries are just a few years away. But guess what—they are now just a few years away. “Solid state” means that the battery’s liquid electrolyte (what separates the anode and cathode) is replaced with a solid material. This leads to lower weight, higher energy density, faster charging speeds, and less risk of fire. A few car brands will feature these batteries in their 2025 models.
Battery recycling is also gearing up to get ready for EVs to start retiring. Several companies, one based in New York, have built recycling plants that can reclaim nearly 95 percent of a battery’s constituent chemicals. These are sold to battery manufacturers to make new batteries in a closed loop system.
EVs are still in the beginning of their development. We’ve had over 120 years to develop the internal combustion engine, and only about 12 years of EVs in production. Changes are coming fast and I’m excited!
Bright Idea: Microtransit
Clean transportation is more than cool electric cars, buses, and trains. Connecting people with the transportation system and making transportation accessible at all price points means getting creative. As more and more companies and agencies lean into making electric transportation workable on a mass scale, creativity is flowing in a new arena: microtransit. From e-bikes, scooters, and pedicabs on the small end, to electric shuttles getting people to the bus and train, microtransit is mainstreaming in major cities. Uber and Lyft dominate in New York City, but in New Rochelle, there are electric micro-shuttles. In Queens, Dollaride is electrifying existing vans and engaging minority franchise owners.
In Hudson Valley communities, the most common manifestation is e-bikes and scooters, which rock when deployed on roads designed for their use. NYSERDA has launched a new Clean Mobility Program offering planning grants to communities to increase access to affordable, zero-emission modes of transportation, so watch this space!
—Melissa Everett
RESIDENTIAL
Enroll in Central Hudson’s Electric Vehicle ChargeSmart Program for a sign-on bonus and additional incentives for charging your vehicle during o -peak hours.
BUSINESSES & MUNICIPALITIES
Participate in the Make-Ready Program for up to 100% of electrical infrastructure costs covered when installing chargers. Plus, New York State o ers up to $4,000 per charger, while funds last.
The first step to decarbonization is an AWEsome three-step process: Assess, Weatherize, and Electrify.
If you’re a homeowner excited about making your home more energy-efficient, the journey can seem overwhelming. There’s a lot to consider: from researching the best technologies to choosing trustworthy contractors, and navigating the array of financing options available through state and federal programs. Luckily, with a thoughtful approach, it can be manageable and even empowering.
I suggest an AWEsome three-step process: Assess, Weatherize, and Electrify. This structured method helps break down the complexities of home upgrades into manageable actions. Let’s walk through the steps.
Assess Your Home’s Energy Efficiency
The first step in your decarbonization journey is to Assess your home’s energy performance. Owners of one-to-four family homes in New York State can receive a no-cost energy assessment through a NYSERDA program. This professional assessment provides a snapshot of how your home is currently performing and identifies easy fixes that could immediately reduce your energy consumption. It also provides a starting point for future improvements.
For example, switching to LED lighting, cleaning your dryer vents, or replacing worn-out AC filters can make an immediate impact. These small steps
Decisions, Decisions
SIMPLE STEPS TO ELECTRIFYING YOUR HOME
By Marcy Cleveland, Founder, Green Building Specialists
help optimize your home’s existing systems while you prepare for more significant upgrades.
Beyond the assessment, consider talking to an energy coach—many programs, such as New Yorkers for Clean Power, offer free online energy coaching sessions. An energy coach isn’t tied to selling specific products, so they can give unbiased advice on prioritizing improvements over time.
This can help you design a long-term plan for your home’s energy transformation that works with your budget and goals.
Weatherize for Maximum Efficiency
The second step is to Weatherize your home by improving its insulation and sealing up any gaps or cracks that let in drafts. Weatherization is the foundation of an energy-efficient home, whether you’re still using fossil fuels or have already begun to electrify.
The most significant energy savings in colder climates come from improving how your home retains heat during the winter. Gaps and cracks around windows, doors, and other parts of your home’s envelope allow warm air to escape and cold air to creep in, forcing your heating system to work much harder. Sealing these areas is a relatively inexpensive way to dramatically improve your home’s efficiency.
When hiring a contractor for weatherization, ask if they’ll conduct a blower door test. This test pressurizes your home, allowing the contractor to find even the smallest air leaks. These various air leaks can then be tightened and eliminated in many ways: a tighter door frame, caulk-like sealing of tiny cracks or openings, spray foam to fill larger gaps through to the interior of a wall. This is an amazingly cheap way to make your home far more efficient. It’s essential to perform this test before and after weatherization work to measure improvements. Addressing these hidden issues was a game-changer for my home’s comfort and efficiency.
Once your home is sealed, the next focus is insulation. Insulation slows heat transfer through your walls, floors, and roof, helping your home maintain a stable indoor temperature. A professional energy assessment using infrared technology can identify the areas where your home is losing the most heat so you know where insulation is most needed. There are many options for modern insulation, and it’s a good idea to speak with an unbiased energy coach to explore them rather than a single contractor. These options include spray foam insulation, rigid foam board insulation inside walls, and blown in, professional grade cellulose fiber. The best solution will depend on your home and your specific goals.
Electrify for a Clean Energy Future
The final step is to Electrify your home. Once you’ve sealed and insulated your home, it’s time to transition from fossil fuel-based systems (like oil boilers or propane heating) to electric alternatives. At this point, your home is more efficient, requiring less energy to maintain comfort—making the switch to clean electric technologies more effective and affordable.
During your early planning phases, make sure your electric system is in shape for higher loads. Your breaker box should be able to carry 200 amps (compared to the 60 to 100A capacity in some older houses). Your wiring should accommodate 240 volts if an induction stove, EV charger, heat pump, or heat pump water heater is in your future. Next time you are upgrading lighting or getting anything electrical fixed, talk with your electrician to makre sure your system can accommodate your plans.
Choosing the right heating and cooling system is essential. Cold climate air-source heat pumps are a popular choice due to their high efficiency, even in harsh winter regions. For new construction or larger homes, a ground-source or geothermal system can be a worthwhile investment, offering high efficiency and often superior long-term savings, despite higher up-front installation costs. Federal tax incentives and financing options help make these systems more affordable by spreading costs over time and aligning them with long-term energy savings.
Another option is installing a heat pump water heater, which uses three times less energy compared to traditional water heaters. These are
all great choices, but your decisions will depend on your home. It is important to do your research with an energy coach or by getting estimates from a few different contractors and comparing them. For example, heat pump water heaters are highly efficient, but create some cold air as a byproduct. In some smaller or tighter situations, a normal (high efficiency) electric resistance water heater is a better solution, and this older tech has also improved dramatically in the last 20 years. When it comes to sourcing clean electricity, you don’t necessarily need to install solar panels on your roof or on your property. Many homeowners opt for community solar programs or choose an energy supplier or ESCO (energy service company) that gets its power from renewable sources like solar and wind. These options allow you to go green without the upfront cost of installing solar.
Planning for the Future
It’s important to think about all your potential upgrades in advance so you can coordinate them effectively. Tackling low-cost, high-impact projects—like weatherization—first can save you money in the short term and give you more financial flexibility for larger investments down the line.
Decarbonizing your home may seem like a daunting task, but by following the AWE framework—Assess, Weatherize, Electrify—you can take it one step at a time. With the right resources, planning, and support, you’ll be well on your way to creating a more energy-efficient, sustainable home.
DON’T MISS: SMARTER THAN EVER CLEAN POWER EXPO + INFO SESSION FOR HOME ENERGY IMPROVEMENTS
January 29, 2025, 5:30–7:30pm The Fuller Building, 45 Pine Grove Avenue, Kingston
As always, we launch the year’s programming with a festive, information-filled Clean Power Expo in Kingston on January 29, 2025. Our theme is “Smarter Than Ever.” A panel of home energy experts will be there to help, even with your most complicated and thorny questions. So will all the businesses that generously sponsor the Clean Power Guide.
The second step in the AWEsome process is to Weatherize your home by improving its insulation and sealing up any gaps or cracks that let in drafts.
Green Skills, Golden Opportunities
NEW YORK’S CLEAN ENERGY CAREERS
By Melissa Everett
Over the past year, the clean energy sector has experienced significant growth nationally, adding more than 250,000 jobs. In New York alone, the Climate Leadership and Protection Act (CLCPA) is projected to add 160,000 new jobs by 2030. This expansion presents numerous opportunities. But what do these roles entail, and how can you pursue them?
Direct benefits of the CLCPA’s policies and funding programs are the energy efficiency and clean energy industries. These include:
• Building weatherization and insulation
• Heating, ventilation and air conditioning through advanced systems such as air source and ground source (geothermal) heat pumps and heat pump water heaters
• Solar electricity on rooftops and larger scale installations serving communities and utilities
• Wind, both offshore and on land
• Electric vehicle production, conversion, sales and service
• Battery storage manufacturing, installation, and maintenance.
The clean energy field is broader than the CLCPA specifically requires and funds, including areas such as bioenergy and solar water heating which make sense in specific contexts. And green jobs are broader still, from urban forestry to environmental public health. But let’s dive into clean energy as a
broad-enough field and a growing one.
Behind the scenes of all these products are constant innovations in materials, design, production, and implementation. For instance, a breakthrough in EV charging design for urban settings comes from the Brooklyn based company Voltpost, which has developed a charging technology designed to be embedded in street light poles. One of the biggest areas of innovation in climate tech is software and system controls. Another is innovative materials for efficient buildings, panels, turbines, batteries, and more.
To make sense of the gobs of information out there on green jobs, it helps to keep two truths in mind. First, there are many shades of green. That is, there are many nuances of ethics and impacts in clean and climate tech jobs across the range of employers, from mom-and-pop solar companies to Tesla. Employer size and stability also impacts the quality of jobs. For example, rooftop solar companies often operate at very thin profit margins, and installation is treated as an entry-level job. Utility- or community-scale solar companies, by contrast, are larger and in many cases, have unionized workforces.
Second, in today’s economy, occupational categories are murkier than they used to be. This brings us to annoying complexities when we try to make simple sense of whether an opportunity is really a job, and what its environmental benefits are. Example: installing and maintaining heat pumps is
a cool and growing green job category. You can do that job for companies that specialize in only heat pumps. But you can also do that job working for a conventional oil or gas delivery company, as they see the trend and diversify their services.
You don’t need to specialize in the technologies to support the industries. They all need administrators, finance people, sales and marketing, project and site management, HR, graphic design, and customer care. And the industries need policy advocates, research and development engineers, and others focusing on the bigger picture. They, in turn, may need support staff who can grow into senior roles.
If you do want to lean into the technology and develop a specialty, there are multiple entry points. Installing solar panels is an entry into the electrical trades. Insulating and weathering buildings is a small step into architecture; as you master the building science behind this work, you will be more equipped to go into architecture. Installing heat pumps and heat pump water heaters will give you a peek into the world of plumbing and HVAC.
While we used to talk about career ladders, today they are less consistent across employers and industries (and sometimes wobbly). The Department of Labor has come up with the euphemism “career lattices” to describe the less certain, more negotiable pathways you can take from entry level to greater expertise and responsibility. NYSERDA’s Clean Energy Career Maps (available at Nyserda.ny.gov) show the types of
roles that are common in key clean energy industries.
Entering into these industries requires the usual mix of skill, thoughtful targeting, and hustle. Fortunately, there is unprecedented opportunity for exposure and low- to no-cost learning. Many campuses have clean energy or sustainability clubs and relevant classes. NYSERDA even publishes a directory of free, online training resources in clean energy. Trade associations such as NYSEIA (the NY Solar Energy Industries Association) and NY-GEO have conferences that welcome newbies.
As you figure out how to get closer to clean energy opportunities to identify the good ones, your greatest asset is your prior experience—even if you think it is teeny. Whatever you have done—be it sales, event organizing, graphic design, or service—highlight the aptitudes and experience this brings you, as a foundation to build on.
And building is easier than ever. New York has invested millions into helping employees to get a foot-hold in the clean energy economy. Paid workforce development programs include:
• Paid internships, up to $17 an hour for 480 hours for students in New York colleges and universities at qualified employers.
• Climate Justice Fellowships, providing a full year baseline salary for members of “priority populations” including people of color, veterans, and single parents— at workplaces willing to cover full health insurance benefits.
• On-the-job training, paying employers for the initial phases of new hires training time.
• And next year, there will be a (just-funded) wind safety training academy in the Town of Newburgh, developed by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Watch IBEW’s website for updates. Ibewlu363.org.
Working in Weatherization
AN INTERVIEW WITH KAREN BENNER OF PGH GATEWAYS
Knowing New York’s ambitious goals and timeline for reducing energy use from the built environment, I am considering a career in weatherization. Where should I start?
Start with the Building Performance Institute, which offers industry standard professional certifications like Building Science Principles (BSP), Site Supervisor Certificate (SSC), Healthy Housing Principles (HHP), and Total Building Performance (TBP). They also certify many professions within the field, including AC and heat pump, building analyst professional (BA-P), energy auditor, and envelope professional.
You can also look into the Building Performance Association, an industry association and a major hub for businesses, nonprofits, and government in the weatherization field, and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, a great source for information on industry workforce development, regulations, and clean energy market trends. They also have an initiative called Green Workforce Connect for posting or searching for jobs in the field.
What does working in the weatherization field look like?
There are many roles and positions in the field, encompassing professionals that work with energy audits, building envelope and air sealing, insulation, and more. Most of this work is basically contracting and building, but as in any industry, businesses small and large also have a need for employees working in management, administration, and sales and marketing. Many people also enter a career in weatherization through initially working in the electrical or HVAC field. Because there has been great federal funding for weatherization since the `90s through the Weatherization Assistance Program, there is always federal funding flowing into the industry. Due to the need for regulation of all these federal funds there is a need for the above mentioned certifications to work in this field. These certifications may be necessary for individuals and companies to access most of these opportunities. It is technically possible to work in the industry without these certifications, perhaps for a utility provider or a private company working primarily with wealthier private clients who don’t care about the federal incentives.
The clean energy sector contains a broad array of jobs, from solar installers to urban foresters and beyond.
Are you ready to leap into home energy upgrades, but looking for some sort of safety net? Read on to learn how to investigate product performance, contractor qualifications, and your recourse if a bad thing should happen.
What can I expect about the safety and operation of any system I buy?
First of all, home energy technology products—solar arrays, heat pumps, and electric vehicles—fall under consumer product safety laws, meaning that they must meet certain safety and quality standards before being sold to the public. They are rigorously tested before they are allowed on the market to ensure they meet industry safety and performance standards. Regulatory bodies, including the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the National Electrical Code (NEC), set minimum safety standards for these products.
• Industry Standards: Organizations such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) establish performance and safety standards, which manufacturers must comply with.
• Also basic are certifications from UL (Underwriters Laboratories) for safety and Energy Star ratings for energy efficiency.
• Operation Expectations: Systems should operate within specified efficiency and performance parameters. For example, a properly installed heat pump should reduce heating and cooling costs significantly, and an EV should meet its advertised range and charging capabilities.
• Maintenance: Understanding the basic maintenance requirements can help prolong the life of the system. This could include regular cleaning of solar panels or annual servicing of heat pumps.
• Consumer Responsibility: It’s crucial for consumers to understand their role in maintaining the safety of these systems by following manufacturer guidelines and scheduling routine inspections or services as recommended.
Consumer Protections for Clean Technologies FAQs
By Alyssa Rivera, Climate Justice Fellow, Sustainable Hudson Valley
Solar arrays and home battery storage systems are among the many home energy technology products that fall under consumer product safety laws.
What can I expect in a warranty?
Rooftop Solar
• Equipment Warranty: Typically covers defects in the solar panels and related components, lasting between 10 to 25 years.
• Performance Guarantee: Ensures that the panels will produce a certain percentage of their rated power output (e.g., 90 percent for the first 10 years) and often extends up to 25 years.
• Installer Warranty: Covers labor-related issues, usually for a shorter period (5 to10 years).
Home Battery Storage Systems
• Cycle Life Warranty: Specifies the number of charge and discharge cycles the battery is warranted for.
• Capacity Retention Warranty: Guarantees the battery will retain a certain capacity level (e.g., 70 percent) after a set period (usually 10 years).
EV and Battery
• Powertrain Warranty: Covers the battery, electric motor, and other key components, typically ranging from 8 to 10 years or up to 100,000 miles.
• Battery Degradation Warranty: Guarantees that the battery will not degrade below a certain capacity level (e.g., 70 percent) over the warranty period.
Electric Appliances (e.g., lawn mower, snow blower)
• Motor and Parts Warranty: Covers the electric motor and other components against defects for a certain period, often two to five years.
• Battery Warranty: If battery-operated, check for a separate battery warranty specifying cycle life and capacity retention.
Induction Stove
• Cooktop Warranty: Typically covers glass and electronics for defects, usually for one to five years.
• Electronic Components: May have a separate warranty for internal electronics and controls.
Insulation
• Material Warranty: Covers the insulation materials against defects, often for 10 to 25 years.
• Installation Warranty: Some companies offer warranties that ensure the installation was performed correctly, reducing the risk of settling or sagging.
What should I consider when choosing a solar installer?
Get at least three estimates, and get bids from both national and local companies to compare different options. Take your time, don’t feel pressured to make a decision or sign a contract. Ask questions about customer service and warranties. Look at both the manufacturer’s warranty and the installer’s warranty. Read online reviews and check references for the company you’re considering.
If you aren’t sure if you want to own or lease your panels, get quotes for both and compare. If you choose to own your solar panels, you will be entitled to a federal income tax credit that you can’t claim if you lease. If you purchase the system, you will be responsible for maintaining the system after the workmanship warranty expires. Solar is a reliable technology at this point, but it’s important to select a reputable contractor who will install the system properly and provide good customer service.
I have heard of solar companies going out of business— does this make leasing solar panels on top of my house a risky choice?
Leasing solar panels is not particularly risky. If the company goes out
of business, your service or contract may shift to a different provider. Even if the solar installer you used goes out of business, that will not void the manufacturer’s warranty. When considering a solar lease, look for a performance guarantee. The proposal should be clear how much energy is going to be produced. Any good lease should have a performance guarantee. There are different risks to leasing and owning. If you own, you assume more of the risk for future repairs and maintenance (although you are generally well protected by warranties). If you lease, you pay a company for the electricity that is produced—if the system underperforms, you pay less. The solar company will be motivated to keep their technology working and producing well. One important consideration is that if you lease your solar panels, the lease will have to transfer or be paid out when you sell your home.
What can I do if I’m not getting appropriate customer service from my solar company?
If your company is not being responsive or not providing good service, you can threaten to call the Better Business Bureau (BBB). If this gets no response, you can actually file a complaint through the BBB. The Department of Public Service also has a consumer affairs hotline. Good news, though: if you have done the homework above, you probably won’t have to.
What Can Renters Do?
DIY Actions
There are many no-cost and low-cost opportunities to save energy without making any major changes to your space. For example, simple actions such as replacing inefficient light bulbs with LEDs—which are 90 percent more energy efficient than past incandescent light bulbs—using a programmable thermostat, buying a countertop induction cooktop unit (you can take it with you if and when you move), and getting the correctly sized window air conditioner can reduce your monthly energy bills. Energy-efficient upgrades often reduce costs for both occupants and property owners, making them a smart investment for everyone.
• Turn down your thermostat. Keeping your thermostat down just one degree saves about two percent of your heating bill. A five-degree reduction will generate 10 percent annual savings and could keep $80 to $200 in your pocket! Wear a sweater to help you stay warm.
• Consider installing a programmable thermostat and set it to 68° F when you’re home, and 55° F when you’re gone. It will remember to turn the heat down for you!
• Tighten up your windows. Even a small gap can drive up fuel bills. Got a loose window? Install weather stripping or caulk any gaps. It helps keep cold air out of the house.
• Install door sweeps if the gap between the door and floor is large. Use “draft dodgers” like a long pillow or towel under the door to reduce drafts.
For a comprehensive list of ways to reduce energy use in your condo or apartment, visit NYSERDA’s website (Nyserda.ny.gov) or Energy.gov. Visit Rewiring America (Homes.rewiringamerica.org) to check out renter opportunities. Other DIY methods are listed on Cornell Cooperatiev Extension’s Smart Energy Choices website (Smartenergychoices.org).
Assitance Programs
• HEAP: The Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) provides assistance to heat and cool homes.
• HEAP Regular Benefit helps with heating expenses for income-eligible homeowners and renters. Incentives are also available to those with heat included in their rent.
Excerpted with permission from Cornell Cooperative Extension, Smart Energy Choices website
• HEAP Emergency Benefit can help you heat your home if you are in a heat or heat related emergency.
• HEAP Cooling Assistance Benefit is for the purchase and installation of an air conditioner or a fan to help your home stay cool.
• NYSEG’s Energy Assistance Program (EAP): If your HEAP grant was applied to your active NYSEG account, an EAP monthly bill credit is automatically applied to your NYSEG bill. The credit will display as a line item under your electricity and/or natural gas delivery charges on your NYSEG bill.
Need help talking to your landlord?
Electrification—or switching from appliances that run on natural gas, oil, propane, and other fossil fuels to better alternatives that run on electricity— can greatly reduce your energy bills. But substantial changes to energy technologies need landlord permission to perform.
Having that conversation can be difficult. A good time to start that conversation is when an inefficient appliance like an old gas-powered stove is failing or needs repair (don’t wait until it’s dead, since that will put time pressure on your landlord).
Landlords tend to respond best when you appeal to their priorities regarding their properties. Here are some angles you can take:
• Electrification makes buildings cheaper to operate.
• Electrification raises a building’s value.
• Electrification is better for the planet.
• Electrification protects your health.
• Electrification aids tenant retention and attracts new tenants.
For a more comprehensive guide to talking to your landlord, Rewiring America is a great resource. Visit the site for more talking points and a sample email to start conversations. NYSERDA also has a webpage breaking down assistance programs to discuss with your landlord. Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Community Energy Advisors are here to help throughout the process.
Hudson Valley’s Finest Homes
1. Hudson Shore Estate: Legacy Meets True Luxury
Eleanor Roosevelt’s former pioneering vocational school for women, masterfully restored to its former glory, is the perfect setting for a family compound or wellness retreat. Unique Arts & Craft 7,700 sq.ft. main house is completely renovated with 6 luxury bedroom suites, each with its own bath, plus a remarkable third-floor owner’s suite with spa bath and den. Multi-level heated pool area with cabana. Separate, renovated 2-unit carriage house. Just 90 minutes from NYC, near New Paltz village center, Metro-North, Kingston waterfront, wineries and dining. MLS#20243382. Hayes Clement m.917.568.5226
2. Welcome to Bontecou Farm
$3,950,000 | West Park $ 2,900,000 | Newburgh
$2,950,000 | Clinton Corners $2,950,000 | New Paltz
A true legacy property of 88 extraordinary acres of meadows, pastures, stone walls, a pond and fruit trees. This fully renovated, circa 1705 compound is sited on a bluff overlooking the Wallkill River, with views of the Shawangunk Mountain range. The historic 5-bedroom, 3.5-bath stone farmhouse has been updated with modern amenities. An elegant cottage near the main house is perfect for hosting guests. The nearly 4,000-sq.ft. classic-style barn affords many possibilities. A tranquil setting full of character in an ideal location. MLS#20242311. Theodore Chazkel m.845.594.5477
3. A Harmonious Connection With Nature and Design
This to-be-built 3,954 sq.ft., 4-bedroom, 4.5-bath residence, embodies modernism, blending natural elements with contemporary design. Nestled on 14 acres, the home appears to emerge organically from the earth. Sustainably designed living spaces are clad in warm-toned Accoya wood siding, supported by two brick volumes in a mutedburgundy tone and a grid of bronze columns. Hues of wood, terracotta and metal accents harmonize with the site’s natural palette; koi pond and inground pool reflect the colors of site and architecture. MLS#6318097. Sean C. Eidle m.845.546.6077
4. High Victorian Gothic Masterpiece
$1,499,000 | Beacon
$999,500 | Pawling
A rare opportunity to own a piece of architectural history, “The Rest” is a 7,200 sq.ft. estate built by renowned architect Frederick Clark Withers. Set on 2.2 acres with stunning Hudson River and bridge views, this home features 5 bedrooms and 4.5 baths, intricate wood moldings, 11-foot ceilings, Tiffany-style stained glass window and chef’s kitchen. A unique property with the perfect blend of history, charm and convenience. Just 64 miles from NYC. Visit 560GrandAvenue.com. MLS#6328928. Tina Townsend m.914.456.4097 | o.845.244.2183
5. Chic Luxury Living
Stunning 4-bedroom, 4-bath home on quiet corner homesite, with high-end finishes, spacious rooms, breathtaking mountain and seasonal water views, while close to Beacon’s thriving art and cultural scene. Easy access to shops, restaurants and outdoor activities. Ideal retreat for those seeking a sophisticated lifestyle in a charming setting. Custom designed new construction home is ready for a discerning buyer. MLS#6312435. Paula Dowd m. 617.688.6998 | o. 845.244.2189
6. Exceptional Development Opportunity
| Purling
Tranquil 134.65 acres in the serene Round Top area, just 15 minutes from Catskill and close to Windham, Saugerties and Hudson. This expansive property includes a portion of Little Round Top Mountain, offering a mix of cleared and wooded land with abundant wildlife. Improvements include rough logging road leading to elevated views; electric service, existing well, survey and a spring-fed pond. Ideal for a private retreat or development. MLS#20243843. Baris Demirel m.347.408.5086 | Melissa Mayes m.646.246.7310
7. Majestic Quaker Hill Colonial on 1.34 Acres
Private setting with mature trees, fieldstone walls, pond and post & beam barn. 4,600+ sq.ft. home features covered porch, oversized mahogany back deck and 3-car garage. First floor private en suite with French doors opens to back deck. Granite kitchen with stainless appliances and pantry; mud/laundry room; formal dining room; open living room with fireplace; library/sitting room; home office with fireplace, third floor media room. Security system, heated garage. Minutes to village and Metro-North; 90 minutes to NYC. MLS#6278928. Todd Kessman m.845.590.6199 | o.845.855.8500
8. County Club Living in The Legends
Impeccable 4-bedroom, 3.5-bath colonial on end of cul-de-sac in prestigious area community. Meticulously landscaped, resort-style backyard with heated gunite pool with hot tub, sprawling rear patio and deck with awning. Granite, center island kitchen with stainless appliances, family room with fireplace, formal dining room and first floor office. Primary suite with tray ceiling, dual walk-in closets and luxurious bath. Finished lower level. Newly paved driveway. Sustainable privacy with country club frontage on rear of property. Near parkway. MLS#6331950. Daniel Axtmann m.845.702.7060
This exceptional 1 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath condominium boasts a spacious, airy layout and sits on the 9th-floor corner unit. Apartment retains all its original charm with parquet flooring and sliding door that separates the living room into two areas. The unit is equipped with dishwasher, stove and refrigerator. New air conditioning system. Pet permitted with a 10-pound weight limit. Non-smoking building. Monthly HOA fee includes taxes, water, sewer, heat and hot water. $229,999.
Ranch on the hill! Built in 1993, this property features 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms spread across 1,568 square feet of living space. The home sits on a spacious 2.6-acre lot, offering plenty of room for outdoor activities and privacy. With its attached garage and beautiful surroundings, it’s an ideal retreat for those looking to enjoy the tranquility of the Catskill Mountains. $515,000
Kingston-based ceramic studio L’Impatience is rolling out a line of ceramic horn-loaded speakers.
After months of experimentation, two Kingston ceramicists created the very first speaker set with an all-ceramic mouth and driver. The speakers have a vintage look, shaped like a mini gramophone. They are eye-catching considering their size, yet subdued—able to fit in any home, on any cabinet, beside any piece of decor.
L’Impatience found its home in Kingston in 2019. Husband and wife, Jerome and Benedict Leclere who are originally from France, started their ceramics studio in the Hudson Valley after moving from Brooklyn. After creating plates, candleholders, mugs, and vases, they have moved from tableware and decor to a new musical venture.
In October, they launched their new ceramic speakers at Field + Supply in Kingston. The speakers have a modern and minimalist design with their sleek white stoneware clay and dark walnut veneer on the plywood base.
The design intent was to hide the electronic side, making for a more visually appealing product. “We wanted to blend natural materials—wood and ceramics—into a harmonious, organic form,” Jerome
says. Rowan Woodworking, also located in Kingston, worked with them to build the wooden base.
“We wanted to just try, with some friends, to make some speakers, and try to add some ceramic elements. We were inspired by horn speakers with the big opening at the top, and I just wanted to try something like that. Surprisingly it sounded really good on the first try—not perfect, but pretty good.”
The sound of the speakers fills the room more than traditional bookshelf speakers. “I feel like it’s a natural sound, meaning, it has more life. If you listen to a record, especially a live record, you feel more drawn into it as if it were more real than a typical speaker,” he says. “Not that it’s louder, but just the shape of it makes the sound come at you more.” In future versions, they plan to use medium-density fiberboard wood for less resonance in the sound.
Getting the right shape and keeping the two speakers exactly symmetrical was a challenge. Originally, they were thrown on the wheel, the same way a pot or a vase would be made. “It’s really hard to replicate the same shape, so then I started to design them in 3-D software. I was doing a mold of
it, and then eventually I just decided to just make one on the wheel as close as possible, and then make a mold from this version to create the other ones so they’re all exactly the same,” Leclere says. Now they are all made by slip-casting, a method involving pouring liquid clay into a mold.
The current model, available for $4,200, is the new and improved version of a smaller design they made a year ago. They hope to eventually make an even bigger version. “We wanted to do two different options where one of them was just the ceramic piece and you would not really have a box with it, but it’s harder to get a full sound because you get less bass from the speaker. Then we wanted to make a really big version for big rooms or restaurants,” Leclere says. “These are for a home, like living room size.”
L’Impatience is taking pre-orders for the speakers and plans to have them for sale on the website in the near future.
