BACKGROUND
Chuck Silver is the founder of Hudson River Design. He began work in this field as a carpenter and then became a general contractor. While attending The State University of NY at Binghamton, he became interested in Buckminster Fuller and moved to Illinois to enter Fuller's design program at Southern Illinois University, receiving a degree in Environmental Systems Design.
After moving to NY's Hudson Valley in 1976, he began taking design work while teaching Energy-Efficient Building and Solar Design courses at State University of NY at New Paltz. He stopped teaching in 1983 to pursue consulting and design work full-time.
In addition to curriculum development, Chuck has authored dozens of articles on building and energy which have appeared in Solar Age, Fine Homebuilding, The Journal of Light Construction, and Northeast Sun. In 1997, he was a featured speaker at the United Nations Conference on Sustainability.
He appeared in the PBS special, "Building an American Dream", which featured a house in New Hampshire that he designed. He also served on the Board of Directors for the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association, and Environmental Building News.
In the 1980's, under contract with the New York State Energy Office, Chuck developed the Better Buildings, Building for Energy-Efficiency, Practical Passive Solar, Remodeling for Energy-Efficiency, and Reducing Indoor Radon programs, and trained thousands of architects, engineers, and builders across NY State.
Chuck's earlier company, Solaplexus became Hudson River Design in 1993. Chuck and his colleagues have provided complete plans, specifications, and design services for over 150 projects, including new homes, commercial buildings, additions, and renovations, and Chuck has won several awards for energy and resource-efficient building design.
Design work has recently been completed for the construction of a 37 unit cohousing project to be built in Rosendale, NY. Set on a 50+ acre parcel, the development footprint is clustered on 4 acres in a dense, pedestrian village. All heat, hot water, and air conditioning needs will be supplied by renewable energy generated on the property, resulting in no energy bills to the homeowners.
In 2007, Hudson River Design's Common Fire Solidarity House in Tivoli, NY was the first building in New York State to be awarded the US Green Building Council's LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum rating, the highest rating possible. It is still the greenest building in New York State.
