Archive for Alex Padalka
Mitchell Joachim’s River Gym: Do the Loco-Motion
Consider your typical New York gym: so much jogging/spinning/lifting, but no one is going anywhere. All that energy, wasted. Architect Mitchell Joachim of Archinode Studio and Douglas Joachim, a personal trainer and lecturer, thought so, too, and designed the River Gym, a . . . well, a “useful multi-planar kinetic space,” really. The concept is actually quite simple - harness all that human locomotion into energy to propel vessels along the Hudson and East Rivers, to several points across the city. In addition to converting the mechanical energy into propulsion, onboard purification devices would clean up the water they travel through. Finally, these floating gyms would take on the non-athletic commuter as well. And instead of TV monitors, everyone gets to watch the changing skyline.
Popularity: 18% [?]
9Jul2008 | Alex Padalka | 0 comments | Continued
ML: Rose Companies’ Metro Green Breaks Ground in Stamford
A LEED for Neighborhood Development Pilot Project- one of 238 such projects in 39 states and D.C. and six countries- broke ground last Tuesday in Stamford, Connecticut. The mixed-use Metro Green will include 238 units of rental and condominium apartments, including 50 affordable housing units which constitute Phase I of the project. Jonathan Rose Companies has teamed up with W&M Properties for the residential component, which independently will seek LEED Gold under New Construction.
Popularity: 22% [?]
9Jun2008 | Alex Padalka | 0 comments | Continued
Fresh Kills: A Beacon of Renewable Energy
Staten Island, home to the un-greenest mess in New York City in the form of the former Fresh Kills landfill, has been popping up recently on the sustainable radar. Now, it’s the mess itself that may be the answer to the greening of energy for all of New York City. Well, the beginning of an answer. Last week, Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro wrote an op-ed in City Hall (and posed with a rather cute model of a wind turbine for his photo) about a proposal to build seven 400-foot wind turbines that could generate 17 megawatts of energy - situated right at the site of the landfill. All this could be done, he wrote, for a mere $40 million funded by a private operator, at no cost to the city. Unfortunately, those 17 megawatts are only enough to power 5000 homes.
Popularity: 7% [?]
19May2008 | Alex Padalka | 1 comment | Continued
Isabella Rossellini Films X-Rated Eco-Short
When the Sundance Channel wanted to break into the business of the “third screen” (the movie theater screen being first, TV being second, and computers, iPods and phones being third), they hired Isabella Rossellini to capture people’s attention. “I thought, ‘capture people’s attention?’ Sex!” she mused in an interview. Insect sex, that is. In a series of eight shorts, Rossellini writes, directs and stars as several different species, including a praying mantis, snail, and a worm, copulating. The films combine a costumed Rossellini and live-action animation, and while they get quite graphic, the use of puppets and the naive tone she takes with her stories make them appear very PG-13. But there’s plenty for fans of Blue Velvet, too.
Popularity: 100% [?]
15May2008 | Alex Padalka | 0 comments | Continued
The MTA: What Are You Going to Do, Walk?
The MTA, the people who brought you “The Next Brooklyn-bound L Train Will Arrive in Two Minutes” announcements only a decade or two after such systems became standard in the Old Country are not letting the Euros beat us in recycling, either. From Paris to Shanghai, most major transit systems in the past 10 years have installed separate bins for paper, glass, plastic, and even organic vs. non-organic waste. A few weeks ago, large stickers appeared on every single one of the black bomb-resistant garbage cans lining the platforms. “Can it for a Greener Planet!” they read. Could it be Apparently the stickers, the number or printing cost of which the MTA did not disclose, were a public service reminder – that they already recycle.
Popularity: 6% [?]
8May2008 | Alex Padalka | 1 comment | Continued
Sustainable Home(less) on the Upper West Side
Green materials and energy-efficient appliances are par for the course when the client is paying over $1,000 per square foot. Fortunately, thanks to socially-concerned and eco-conscious designers and suppliers, sustainably-built habitats need not be exclusive. The basement of the Broadway Presbyterian Church in Morningside Heights serves as a homeless outreach hub shared by several organizations. One of them, Care of the Homeless (”CFH”), a non-profit providing free medical services to the homeless, received a small federal grant to renovate its 500-square-foot medical facility in the basement, where “medical staff was performing medical exams in a rather crowded closet.” The New York affiliate of Architecture for Humanities (AFHny), the non-profit network of designers behind dozens of rebuilding efforts from Sri Lanka to New Orleans, came on board, as did several eco-conscious suppliers that chipped in free or discounted materials.
Popularity: 9% [?]
10Apr2008 | Alex Padalka | 0 comments | Continued
A Greener Suburban Sprawl?
While green building and luxury living in Manhattan are now practically married, a truly unique candidate for LEED certification is now going up forty miles out of the city. “Green is becoming the new amenity of choice in luxury housing. Today’s socially conscious, upscale homebuyers are more concerned about the size of their carbon footprint than the size of their master bath,” Mark Hallett Robbins, president of NRDC Residential, the developer of Windermere on the Lake, announced in a press release. Windermere on the Lake is a planned residential community being developed in the Fairfield County community of North Stamford.
Popularity: 5% [?]
8Apr2008 | Alex Padalka | 0 comments | Continued-
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