Woodframe Renovation Project - Office of Sustainability

The Woodframe Renovat ion Project added apartment-style residences for students to the Tufts Medford/Somerville CoHo (Community Housing) district, providing a total of 75 new beds for undergraduates. The projects include full reconstruction of the two Medford properties and a significant addition to the existing building in Somerville.

These modern living spaces include comfortably sized common areas to encourage community gathering and collaboration among residents. All three buildings are in proximity to other Tufts housing, enhancing the neighborhood feel for the student residents. The houses are designed to reflect the look of the surrounding neighborhoods, honoring the aesthetic of existing homes.

Additionally, all three properties will meet or exceed state accessibility codes and will include at least one accessible bedroom, onsite handicap parking, and entrance ramps.

The properties of the buildings meet “passive house” standards, which greatly reduce energy consumption and shrink the buildings’ carbon footprints. Insulation is very tight, and heating and cooling will be provided by heat pumps in addition to these following design features:

Insulation efficiency on the walls and ceilings.
Gasket-style windows, minimizing heat loss through window units
Electrically powered heat pump heating and cooling
Heat pump hot water
LED light fixtures
Low-flow plumbing fixtures
High-efficiency energy recovery unit
10” nominal thickness for exterior walls, which delivers a R-38 insulation efficiency on the walls. The ceiling assembly will be R50 or greater.
Slab-on-grade construction with a fully insulated slab and foundation walls
Prefabricated building panels provide a high level of building “tightness” by minimizing penetrations to the exterior and heat loss at commonly challenging locations, such as building corners.