LEED Lands on UWS: More Details on Harsen House

2007

Apr

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I'd briefly mentioned Harsen House (image to the left) on the Upper West Side in a previous post, but I came across an article describing the project in a bit more detail and thought I'd point you to it. The 16-story, 22-unit project broke ground last winter, and developer Anbau Enterprises expects a spring 2008 occupancy. As I noted previously, the building was designed by BKSK Architects (which also designed the Queens Botanical Garden Visitor's Center, aiming for LEED Platinum) with interiors by Andres Escobar. Green design elements include hot water radiant heat, FSC-certified oak floors, ducted kitchen hoods which ventilate air directly outdoors, and energy-efficient, floor to ceiling windows. As I described in my last post, we're seeing an increasing number of owners that are engaging firms with prior green design experience. Designers and contractors that fail to educate themselves with respect to sustainable construction principles risk losing business. As Jerry Yudelson predicted in an article that was published earlier today, based on the first two months of construction activity here in 2007, this year's green building market will see $30 billion in projects, including 1,700 new LEED registrations. That's an enormous amount of work available for firms that can effectively navigate the integrated design and construction processes that sustainable construction demands. Firms that are unable to, or don't want to, are going to find themselves at a competitive disadvantage far sooner than they might think.