Betty Greene Apartments

Project Overview

Roxbury, MA –

SES served as the Commissioning Authority for the Betty Greene Apartments. This new, six-story, 75,000 square foot building that replaced two distressed structures on the site and now provides 65 units of income-restricted affordable housing, along with a manager’s office, community room, and ground-floor commercial space fronting Columbus Avenue.

The project pursued dual sustainability certification under LEED v4 Multifamily Midrise and PHIUS+ Core (PHIUS 2018), pairing an energy-efficient design with long-term affordability for residents earning between 30 and 60 percent of the area median income. SES commissioned the building’s mechanical, plumbing, and electrical systems, including a rooftop energy recovery ventilators, dwelling and common-space VRF heat pump units, common-space AC split units and electric unit heaters, a gas-fired domestic hot water plant with two heaters and 2, 200-gallon storage tanks supplying hot water to the domestic hot water recirculation loop, lighting controls, and equipment integration to the building automation system.

From commissioning plan development through functional performance testing, deficiency tracking, systems manual assembly, and a post-occupancy warranty review, SES worked alongside the construction team and trade contractors to confirm that every system performed as designed. All issues identified during testing, from a kinked refrigerant line to a communication fault at a heat pump controller, were tracked to closure and the resulting building now delivers on both its comfort and efficiency goals for the residents of the Jamaica Plain neighborhood.