March 18, 2026
5 min read
This invention could reduce the carbon footprint of old buildings without displacing residents
A startup that received Wells Fargo Foundation support aims to use new technology with immense potential to modernize buildings and improve people’s lives.
Key takeaways
- The problem: Aging buildings in the U.S. often have outdated facades and rely on inefficient and unhealthy heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, according to engineer and inventor David Goldstein.
- A potential solution: A modular panel from Goldstein’s Hydronic Shell Technologies could effectively modernize these buildings’ facades and HVAC systems without disruptive renovation projects that displace residents.
- What’s the impact? If they’re found viable, these panels could make housing more livable, efficient, and resilient. Hydronic Shell Technologies received Wells Fargo Foundation support to help it test their impact.
Upstate New York’s snowy winters don’t get to Dason Motayne, but the sweltering summers, which outcompete his mid-century apartment’s air conditioning, do.
“I think [my AC] is about to die,” he said. “It’s an old building, so it’s hard to regulate it in the summertime.”
That old building — the 418 Fabius senior public housing complex in Syracuse, New York — is far from unique. It was built in the 1950s, a time when the U.S. government authorized a huge influx of some 135,000 units of public housing per year. In 2018, inspectors found more than one in four public housing units were in a state of disrepair (PDF). Whether due to poor insulation or little to no air conditioning, these public housing buildings struggle with cooling and ventilation, which means that the disproportionately older and chronically ill residents are more vulnerable to poor indoor air quality and worsening heat waves.
“Heating and cooling are major factors deciding quality of life around the world.”
Unfortunately, these types of public housing buildings have seen fewer investments or innovations that could make them more comfortable — and more environmentally sustainable, said Bill Simmons, executive director of Syracuse Housing Authority, which owns 418 Fabius.
“Who’s there to speak for the little guy to say, ‘Let’s try it here in public housing,’ where we could benefit and our resources are very, very scarce?” Simmons said.
Enter David Goldstein. Together with Lisa Hart, a public health analyst and grants manager at Syracuse Housing Authority, Goldstein is hoping to use public housing as a place to demonstrate a new innovation that could enhance aging buildings around the globe.
“Heating and cooling are major factors deciding quality of life around the world,” Hart said. “It’s the lowest income population who’d be able to benefit first from this project.”
How can occupied buildings be retrofitted for a net-zero future?
In Queens, 250 miles from Syracuse, Goldstein looks out the window of his home office and sees our heating-cooling problem — and a potential solution.
“I have a nice view of Manhattan, and even in just New York City, there are literally hundreds of thousands of buildings that need to be retrofitted if we want to be net-zero by 2050,” he said. “We’re just not going to do open-heart surgery on all these buildings.”
In 2020, Goldstein, an experienced mechanical engineer, was pondering this view when it dawned on him: “Why not wrap buildings in a heated blanket?”
Goldstein invented prefabricated, modular facade panels with insulation, heating, cooling, and ventilation that are installed onto a building’s façade. They can work with a variety of energy-efficient HVAC systems, including heat pumps. With these panels, a retrofit — rather than a costly rebuild — can bolster insulation, replace leaky windows, and filter indoor air of mold, smoke, and other pollutants.
These first-of-their-kind panels may work especially well for large-scale housing projects where people already live. By installing the panels from the exterior, residents may be minimally disrupted.
Goldstein founded Hydronic Shell Technologies to test his idea on real buildings. Its potential is huge. Modernizing older, inefficient buildings helps to improve unhealthy indoor air quality, reduce energy use, and save residents money. It could also help to save lives and improve residents’ quality of life.
“I couldn’t just turn my back on these people that need help,” he said. “I really think I can help them.”
Funding and partnerships can make scalable decarbonization a reality
Goldstein needed help to get his system out into the real world. He turned to the Housing Affordability Breakthrough Challenge, a $20 million competition from the Wells Fargo Foundation and Enterprise Community Partners to scale innovative housing solutions. One of six winners in 2023, the startup received a $3 million grant, paving a way for Goldstein to develop a prototype.
The team’s next step is starting work on a demonstration building in Albany, New York, this year. That project will feature Goldstein’s retrofit technology and a new construction system the team developed in 2025.
“I couldn’t just turn my back on these people that need help.”
“Support that’s coming from Wells Fargo is really helping to fund that [cleantech] ecosystem,” Goldstein said. “As an industry, we can develop those innovative, those outside the box, solutions that we need in order to solve these huge challenges.”
What will success look like? Goldstein will be measuring energy use, indoor air quality, and heating and cooling after the retrofit. But one of the most important markers will be if residents of buildings improved by the technology love it.
“What I hope will happen is that people in other buildings start demanding it,” he said.
If they do, it could be the first step into making Syracuse, and then the country, more sustainable.
“This could be so much bigger than this one building,” Hart said. “This invention could really be a worldwide phenomenon. Everywhere in the world needs to decarbonize.”
