ML: Richmond County Supreme Court Building by Polshek Partnership Architects

It’s not the type of green building legal news we’ve been reporting over at GRELJ recently, but New York City, DASNY, and the borough of Staten Island broke ground last week on a new five-story state Supreme Court building for Richmond County. The $220 million project will rise in the St. George section on the site of a former municipal parking lot and should be completed sometime in 2012. As an attorney who has appeared out on Staten Island, I can attest that the project is sorely needed to consolidate the borough’s outdated court facilities that are currently spread out across separate buildings; the new courthouse will include Supreme Court, criminal court, and jury assembly space.

Designed by Polshek Partnership Architects, the 180,000-square-foot project will be Staten Island’s first new courthouse in 75 years and will include a number of sustainable design features (notwithstanding its planned 660-space parking garage). The courthouse will be powered in part by building-integrated photovoltaic panels and also offer three different green roofs. It will also include a graywater system, public recreation space, and space for Staten Island’s green market.

In addition, a memorial green will commemorate the New York Marine Hospital, which occupied the project site during the 18th century. In 2006, human remains were discovered of what was a burial ground for Irish and German immigrants that had been hospitalized. An ad hoc committee determined that the remains should be interred on the site, and this same committee will participate in the design process for the memorial green.

As you’ll recall, DASNY, the New York State agency that oversees most public construction - including courthouses - across the Empire State, has required a LEED Silver rating for its projects since the beginning of 2008. The agency is also targeting a 32 percent reduction in energy consumption for those projects, though we’ve yet to see any actual performance data as reported by DASNY.

• Dirt Moves on SI Courthouse Project (GlobeSt.com)
• DASNY to Require LEED Silver Beginning in 2008 (gbNYC)

ML is short for our weekly Monday LEEDoff™ column, which typically profiles a different LEED project generally in (but not limited to) the New York City area. You can access an archive of profiled projects via this link.