Dietz & Company’s Dani Garber-Letitia Certified as Passive House Consultant

Dani Garber-Letitia

SPRINGFIELD — Dietz & Company Architects Inc. announced that Senior Architect Dani Garber-Letitia has earned the credential of certified passive house consultant (CPHC) through Phius (Passive House Institute U.S.), a nonprofit organization dedicated to decarbonization and passive building.

The Phius passive building certification standard is a rigorous energy standard that produces buildings that use 40% to 60% percent less energy than conventional structures. In order to achieve CPHC certification, Garber-Letitia completed a comprehensive training course and a rigorous multi-part exam to prove her knowledge.

She joined Dietz & Company Architects in 2021 and has more than 15 years of experience as an architect and owner’s project manager for firms in Massachusetts. As a senior architect in the firm’s Cambridge office, she manages medium to large-size construction projects specializing in renovation and modernization for multi-family housing clients and work for public school districts. In addition to managing the Cambridge office, she also serves as a mentor for junior staff and has taken the lead on organizing in-house educational and training opportunities.

“In my eternal quest to be a better architect and global citizen, pursuing and achieving passive house certification felt like an important step in being able to create architecture that reduces the human impact on the earth,” Garber-Letitia said. “Passive house projects reduce a building’s energy use by up to 90%, while providing more comfortable and healthier spaces for people. This is a huge step for the future of building resilience and the health of our communities. This certification and knowledge will not only increase Dietz & Company’s opportunities to work on such projects, but also enhance our ability to bring a higher level of sustainable design to all of our work.”