April 2025
We are moving into spring weather in Amherst, and we are grateful to shed our coats! We hope our readers and friends are appreciating the weather too. We always look forward to meeting new friends and catching up with old friends at the NESEA BuildingEnergy conference each year and we sure did have a great time meeting everyone and learning new concepts.
Warmly,
Andrew and the Graphite Team
BuildingEnergy NESEA Conference 2025 Boston, MA
We're thrilled to report that the entire Graphite Studio team attended BuildingEnergy Boston 2025. This premier conference and trade show, organized by NESEA (Northeast Sustainable Energy Association), was a must-attend event for professionals in high-performance building, design, energy efficiency, and renewable energy.
As a residential design firm committed to energy-smart retrofits and high-efficiency new homes, we were eager to engage with over 1,000 industry leaders and emerging professionals. This year's theme, "Build the Movement” aligned perfectly with our mission to create sustainable, comfortable living spaces and a strong vibrant workforce across western New England.
The conference offered two full days of carefully curated sessions featuring best practices, real case studies, and innovative technologies. We were particularly excited about discussions on electrification, thermal energy networks, and strategies for achieving a zero-carbon building sector.
BuildingEnergy Boston 2025 also marked NESEA's 50th anniversary, making it an extra special occasion. We celebrated this milestone and contributed to the ongoing dialogue about creating a more sustainable and equitable built environment. NESEA continues to be a community from which we draw strength and inspiration, where we recharge our batteries for the hard work of change-making, and find new ways to center our work on people.
Project Progress: Phoenix Nest
Great progress continues at Phoenix Nest! We're excited to announce that we've reached a significant milestone - the project is now dried-in. The Mathes Hulme Builders team has made remarkable strides since our last update, moving swiftly from roofing and exterior work to the interior systems.
The team is pursuing mechanical rough-in, in which the infrastructure of heating, cooling, and ventilation is installed, and the electrical rough-in, when the wires get run, bringing us closer to a fully functional climate control system. Our beautiful Sublime windows, which were standing by for delivery in our previous update, are now in place, enhancing both the aesthetics and energy efficiency of the building.
They’re also making headway in the electrical systems, insulation, and preparing for drywall installation, bringing us ever closer to project completion! At this stage, the job site begins to hum with activity. It’s one of the busy phases of a job, and often brings rapid visible changes. Before we know it, it’ll be time for plaster and flooring and siding and porches and roofing! It’s one of the joys of the job, to watch these rhythms, like seasons, come and go.
Thanks as always to Adam and the crew at MHB, who continue to deliver great work. Despite a hailstorm on site today(!), Spring is here and we hope the weather on site treats them well in the coming weeks!
