Dennis Wedlick has refined the custom single-family home practice as a creative laboratory for eco-friendly design. His designs, writings, and teachings disseminate the attributes of sustainability; he builds coalitions to use green architecture for the greater good.

For over thirty years, the objective of Dennis Wedlick’s single-family residential practice has been to promote good growth, which he defines as developing an evocative built environment that is protective of the natural environment. His widely published body of work defies the notion that custom residential design is a practice of indulgence—one-offs of elite houses that do not contribute to the greater good.

In 1995, he was selected to design the Life Magazine Dream House, where he debunked the McMansion myth that a home’s size was more important than efficacy. In 2000, Wedlick was approached by Harper Design to publish a monograph; he used the opportunity to write his first of five guides for homeowners and builders that would deconstruct good design and green building techniques. In 2004, he co-founded, with Jeremiah Eck and Duo Dickinson, the Congress of Residential Architecture, a national assembly of designers who shared the same vision--a better world starts with a better home. CORA eventually led to the formation of the AIA Custom Residential Architects Network—CRAN--and recently founded a CRAN knowledge community for AIA New York.

In 2008, Wedlick built a coalition with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to pursue the Hudson Passive Project, a seminal architectural case study on energy conversation and Passive House techniques. This led to his partnership with Columbia County (New York) Habitat for Humanity to design and build Passive Houses for low-income families who benefit from a monthly housing cost that is half the rent of a substandard apartment.

Founder, and now Principal Emeritus, of BarlisWedlick Architects, Wedlick has turned his full professional attention to the affordable housing crisis facing farmers and others in the rural workforce by launching the Rural Build, a coalition of not-for-profit developers, conservationists, and property owners building Passive Houses in farming communities in the Mid-Hudson Valley.