Managed by Jones Lang LaSalle, the Mutual of America Life Insurance Company recently earned LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance (EBOM) Silver for its 35-story headquarters building located at 320 Park Avenue. Mutual of America actually retained JLL last January with the specific directive to assist it in developing a plan of attack for earning LEED certification for the building. The 750,000-square-foot, Class A tower at East 51st Street was given a major overhaul back in 1995 that transformed a Bauhaus box into a post-modern high-rise; current renovations that supported the LEED-EBOM application include a 10 percent reduction in potable water consumption, a variety of energy efficiency initiatives, advanced commissioning, and a green office supply purchasing program. 320 Park Avenue is one of only five Manhattan office properties that earned EPA's Energy Star label for 2008; it's also the sixth time that the building has earned the award (2002 and 2004-2007).
While these sorts of certifications may not be as sexy as some of the the high-profile green trophy projects that we've seen elsewhere, at least here in New York City I think they are critical. For example, moving forward, the legislation promulgated by the Mayor's Greener, Greater Buildings Plan will provide an exemption to the the benchmarking and retrofitting requirement that will be imposed on all buildings larger than 50,000 square feet for properties that achieve LEED-EBOM (under the LEED 2009 system). Properties that earn LEED-EBOM now, in advance of that legislation taking effect, will likely earn a competitive advantage in the most challenging commercial leasing climate in recent memory.
320 Park Avenue was built in 1960 and originally designed by architects Emery Roth & Sons; Swanke Hayden Connell executed the 1995 redesign.
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