There's Gold in Jersey: Montclair's GreenWorks on Grove Gets LEED Props

We make no great effort to conceal our pro-New Jersey bias here at gbNYC, but it's especially gratifying when a Garden State-based project comes along that would be exciting even if it were not located a short drive -- depending on traffic -- from where Stephen and I grew up. GreenWorks on Grove, which Steve profiled earlier in its life cycle, is one such project -- an old gas station in Montclair re-imagined as a super-green 3,500-foot retail space. Considering the astonishing suite of green design elements built into GreenWorks on Grove -- from solar panels and high-performance glass to individual electric submetering and super-efficient HVAC and plumbing systems -- it was probably a given that GreenWorks would get the LEED certification it sought. And yet it's still worth celebrating just how thoroughly GreenWorks has succeeded in what was a very ambitious bit of adaptive reuse. They were awarded LEED Gold for Core and Shell earlier this week.

At the risk of simply running off a checklist of Things gbNYC Thinks Are Awesome, it's worth going into greater depth on GreenWorks' green elements, which are about as comprehensive as anything on display in the greater New York area. Permeable pavers and native landscaping reduce water runoff; recycled materials are present throughout, and 92 percent of construction waste (142 tons) was recycled; the cellulose insulation is made from 85 percent recycled newspapers; 61 percent of the exterior structure was salvaged from the former World Pottery Building. And so on. Even for us, and even for New Jersey, there's a limit to how much PDF we can regurgitate, but suffice to say that what we left out -- the 15 SEER HVAC system, the... okay, enough -- is as impressive as what we mentioned. GreenWorks on Grove has the distinction of being the first LEED-CS building in New Jersey*, but it's also unquestionably one of the greenest buildings in the state.

Which is nice, of course, but also promises to confer a very real benefit to the building's tenants -- beyond the bike racks and whatnot, the energy costs at GreenWorks promise to be notably lower than usual, and the presence of those individual electric submeters will make green leases easy to implement. It's a real achievement for all involved, from certification managers Joel Patenaude and Jason DeSalvo, architect Paul Sionas and contractors Jack Finn & Company on down. New Jersey pride can be difficult sometimes -- You've seen what's going on with the basketball team, right? You are perhaps familiar with our politics? -- but other times it's easy. GreenWorks is a project that's easy to feel proud of, even for those less Jersey-partial than your gbNYC writer/editors.

*NOTE: See my correction to this in the comments.