Zero Energy Design

By David Sokol

As classmates at Cornell, ZED partners Emile Chin-Dickey, Jordan Goldman, Stephanie Horowitz, Ben Uyeda, and David Wax coordinated the work of 70 students for the school’s 2005 Solar Decathlon entry. “We were the only student-run team in the competition, and we were multidisciplinary,” Uyeda says. These entrepreneurs, engineers, and architects had competing agendas, “but we agreed there was room for improvement in building a sustainable, reproducible house in suburban America.” Wax, who at the time was an M.B.A. student heading the Cornell team’s business arm, says, “The competition allowed us to incubate and operate a business for two years in a safe academic environment.”

Today Wax is C.E.O. — and at 32, the oldest member — of Boston-based ZED. Horowitz and Uyeda, who is also principal of open-source Web resource Free Green lead the firm’s design work. Chin-Dickey and Goldman oversee engineering efforts, while Adam Prince tackles business development.

When ZED first hung its shingle, the partners still planned to translate their second-place Solar Decathlon entry into a salable product. But over time, Wax adds, “We realized that the modular-housing market is crowded, and raising money gives away your company.” So, defying its own expectations, ZED transitioned into custom green-home construction and renovation. The projects that have since resulted range from Modern buildings on Cape Cod and Dominica to the renovation of architect James H. Ritchie’s Craftsman home and neo-Traditional-style new construction. All combine Chin-Dickey’s and Goldman’s exacting energy models with the design skills of Horowitz and Uyeda. And Uyeda credits Wax for persuading homeowners to embrace sustainability: “The question isn’t the total sticker price, but the difference in the cost of ownership,” Uyeda recounts. “You don’t tell someone something will cost $10,000 more; you say, ‘We’ll increase your mortgage payment by $50 but lower your monthly utility bill by $100.’ ”

Besides staying aesthetically nimble, recently the ZED team have had to put their heads together again, this time to respond to the recession. Their answer: pitching energy-modeling services to other architects and builders. Offering ZED as a consulting resource “allows us to continue to have work when other people don’t,” Wax says. And rather than pine for a traditional studio setup, Uyeda says ZED’s dexterity has set him free. “My reach as an architect wouldn’t be nearly as great if I didn’t have Jordan’s calculations or Dave’s marketing ideas.”

 

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