By Johnson 
Welcome to How They Pulled It Off, where we take a close look at one particularly challenging aspect of a home design and get the nitty-gritty details about how it became a reality.
Midcentury buildings aren’t exactly known for their environmental efficiency—after all, they’re products of a postwar era marked by economic optimism, booming technology, and little concern for sustainability. And for a 1953 home outside of Chicago, that was very much the case.
Originally featured in Better Homes & Gardens as “The House You Asked For,” its colorful built-ins, modern wall treatments, and indoor-outdoor living were a direct response to reader input, and were inspired by California Case Study architecture. The house had great bones and a strong midcentury aesthetic and was originally designed by local architects Brooks Buderus and Gerald Siegwart.
In the 2010s, a young family of five had moved in, living first as renters and then several years later as owners after they purchased the three-bedroom home. At that point, they knew and loved the home, but were looking to update it—it was showing its age, especially from an energy efficiency standpoint.
The H-shaped house allowed for indoor-outdoor living with large, nearly floor-length windows that opened up into the central “bar” of the H. Unfortunately, despite the impressive beamed ceilings, the roof had poor drainage and rot in several areas.
The family sought the services of Tom Bassett-Dilley Architects, a local architecture firm specializing in passive and zero-energy buildings, which also has experience updating midcentury designs. Early correspondence between the family and Bassett-Dilley included a wish list (15 items long!) that focused on maintaining the essence and design of the midcentury home while updating the aging electrical, HVAC, plumbing, roofing, and windows. Also on the list of “wants”: sustainability and resiliency measures such as solar panels, reclaiming wood, and introducing a tornado-proof room.
The team eliminated the original front door, making the mudroom/side entry the main entry. This made better use of the small floor plan and allowed the kitchen to expand.
To meet these requests, Bassett-Dilley and his team focused on improving energy efficiency, comfort, and safety—all without expanding the home’s footprint. Key upgrades included re-sloping the roof for better drainage, adding high-performance insulation and triple-glazed windows, and installing all-electric heating and cooling systems with solar panels. Interior changes improved layout and function, while a new safe room (for those Midwestern tornados) and reconfigured entry enhanced safety and space use.
How They Pulled It Off: An Energy-Efficient Home
- By re-sloping the roof, drainage was guided to the edges of the building. The use of new insulation (tapered polyisocyanurate) greatly reduced heat loss from the roof. The updated building envelope consists of a peel-and-stick air and water barrier (Henry Blueskin), new continuous fiberboard insulation (Steico, a carbon-sequestering material), and new triple-glazed windows and patio doors (Alpen Zenith). Cellulose was used in the cavities and wood fiberboard for the new continuous exterior insulation.
- The combination of the new roof insulation, insulation and an air barrier at the exterior walls, and new windows changed the exterior from a flimsy screen to a robust, resilient enclosure, while maintaining the exterior openings for light and visual connection to the outdoors.
- The energy recovery ventilator (ERV) improves indoor air quality by continuously exchanging stale indoor air with fresh outdoor air while simultaneously transferring heat and moisture between the two air streams. This process helps regulate temperature and humidity levels, reducing the load on your HVAC system and potentially lowering energy costs.
- The ERV was from Renewaire, and the heat pumps from Mitsubishi. Similarly, for water heating, which is simpler to specify, it’s a Rheem heat pump unit.
The doghouse’s orientation created clerestories that face east and west, making the garden room a solar clock, constantly reflecting the time of day.
One of the key changes didn’t add any square footage, but it did make many of the infrastructure upgrades possible. Adding a “doghouse”—a raised area at the roof—provided the space for new ductwork for the heat pump heating and cooling and energy recovery ventilation (ERV) system. Because of the H-shape of the house, it was originally designed with two different systems for the two different “legs” of the H. The doghouse was designed to accommodate ductwork that could feed both sides of the house.
As Bassett-Dilley notes, windows in midcentury homes are often large, stretching from floor to ceiling, making them often major culprits in energy loss. However, getting a good U-value with double- or triple-glazed units, along with attention to the orientation to the sun, can help strike the right balance with solar heat gain in winter months in cold climates.
But the doghouse wasn’t just for ducts. The design team laid out the mechanical ducts in the center of the doghouse. This meant that the tall clerestory windows at the perimeter would let in abundant light, which then bounced down into the rooms below thanks to a graceful curve at the ceiling.
Preserving that open layout was a key concept of the renovation. “Specific to midcentury homes, we think it’s important first to embrace their modest size and not try to make them bigger than they want to be: the sense of space achieved by interior flow and openness to the outdoors defines their character,” notes Bassett-Dilley.
Since Bassett-Dilley and his team are experienced in Passive House design, they selected specific energy-saving equipment to complement the energy-saving strategy of the building envelope. The ERV “takes air from the kitchen, bathrooms, and laundry and distributes fresh air to the bedrooms and living spaces, keeping CO2 low while removing VOCs,” says Bassett-Dilley.
Keeping the roofs flat in appearance was important to maintaining the character-defining feature of the home—despite the fact that it got new insulation, new drainage, and new solar panels.
The roofs were planned for solar panels using standard panel sizes, and the water heater is powered by a heat pump unit. Additionally, the team also removed the gas infrastructure to fully decarbonize the house.
The renovation also reorganized the bedrooms and bathrooms for a more efficient layout. A concrete block “safe room” was added in the bedroom wing for tornado safety.
Together, the deep energy upgrades led to an impressive 93 percent projected reduction in operational carbon footprint. The biggest opportunity in the project for energy reduction was a better thermal envelope, especially the roof, walls, and windows. “Once the envelope is addressed, then efficient electrical, HVAC, and appliances plus solar panels complete the strategy,” explains Bassett-Dilley. Ultimately, he notes, “great things are possible with good design!”
Project Credits:
Architect: Tom Bassett-Dilley Architects
Structural Engineer: Frederick Lam Structural Engineering
Third Party Testing: Insight Property Services
Photos: Natalie Marotta
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