Green Design

The Daily News is reporting that White Coffee Corp.- a third-generation, family-owned coffee business based in Queens- has earned an unspecified level (and type) of LEED certification for its headquarters building at 18-35 38 Street in Long Island City, across the street from the Steinway Piano factory. Details about the project are slim, but did include the installation of energy-efficient lighting throughout the company’s space, as well as a reorganization of truck delivery routes to conserve fuel. White is also now recycling the chaff (protective casing) of its coffee beans in cooperation with a Queens-based contractor. The company was founded back in 1939 and has 120 employees, offering over 300 varieties of organic and fair trade-certified types of coffees.

The P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in Long Island City is an affiliate of MoMA and offers exhibition space for some of the most experimental modern art in the world, featuring over 50 different exhibitions annually, as well as various musical and performance programming. P.S.1 was founded in 1971 as the Institute for Art and Urban Resources Inc., which installed art exhibitions in various abandoned and otherwise underutilized spaces across the city. After finding a permanent home in a former Long Island City school building in 1976, P.S.1 became an affiliate of MoMA back in 2000. It recently commissioned Danish energy consultants Leif Hansen to create a green, energy-efficient renovation plan. Engineer and Leif Hansen executive Flemming Kristensen called it a “unique challenge” to evaluate ways to conserve energy within the museum environment. “You have to redesign the lighting so that it will not damage the artwork,” he said. “It’s a bit like reinventing the light bulb.”

We’ve written about 1095 Sixth Avenue previously; the tower, owned by the Blackstone Group, sits across 42nd Street from LEED Platinum hopeful Bank of America Tower and is undergoing a two-year, $408.9 million renovation. Designed by Moed de Armas & Shannon Architects and Gensler, the entire shell of what was once the Verizon Building is being replaced, effectively creating an entirely new structure; the tower’s marble exterior is being replaced with an energy-efficient glass curtain wall. Unlike the Bank of America project, and despite its green features, 1095 Sixth Avenue is not seeking a LEED rating. Tishman Construction is the construction manager on the project. While it’s hard to draw any real conclusions from the deal, it’s notable that Dabroes Management, a hedge fund, just signed a five-year lease for 12,200 square feet on 1095 Sixth Avenue’s 24th floor. Asking rents for the prebuilt space were $135 per square foot.

We noted recently that Community Housing Innovations (”CHI”) has broken ground on the $4.5 million, affordable, green Minerva Place Condominiums in White Plains, but wanted to formally present you with a few more details about the project. Minerva Place is one of the first low-rise new developments in Westchester County to satisfy the New York Energy $mart Multifamily Performance Program guidelines. The project includes a 350-foot-deep geothermal heating and cooling system, as well as efficient insulation and construction techniques that CHI anticipates will save residents up to 30 percent on energy costs. Minerva’s energy-efficient features are being subsidized by a $55,000 grant from NYSERDA. The project was designed by Warshauer Mellusi Warshauer Architects and includes 11 two-bedroom (priced at $265,000) and 3 one-bedroom units ($225,000), each with hardwood floors and granite kitchen countertops. To qualify, families must have incomes between $73,000 and $91,000.

After taking effect earlier this year, the New York City Green Schools Guide and Rating System (“GSG”) now applies to all new school construction, modernization, and renovation projects in the five boroughs. The GSG and Rating System is based on LEED, but also incorporates elements from the Collaborative for High Performing Schools Rating System (developed by Washington, Massachusetts, and New York States) and the School Construction Authority’s Best Practices. It’s intended to complement Local Law 86 (which mandates LEED Silver for most public projects in New York City). Designed by Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects, the first school certified under the program opened for the academic year back on September 2 at 213 East 63rd Street.

We wrote earlier this summer about Brennan Beer Gorman Architects / Brennan Beer Gorman Monk Interiors’ (”BBG-BBGM”) new headquarters space on the 25th floor of the Empire State Building, which will seek the tower’s first LEED for Commercial Interiors rating. Recently, the 32,000-square-foot project’s general contractor Aragon Construction installed BBG-BBGM’s HVAC system on the building’s first setback on the southwest corner. The two 9500-pound chillers will run independently from the rest of the Empire State Building and were designed to save BBG-BBGM 15 percent on energy consumption over ASHRAE standards. The installation was actually the first in the history of the building and suggests some of the intricacies of both green construction contracts and leasing provisions, including whether the landlord or tenant should be responsible for the installation of such equipment and how any associated savings that are realized might be shared between the two sides.

1070 Anderson Avenue, designed by Manhattan-based Magnusson Architects is an 8-story affordable housing development in the Highbridge section of the Bronx that will offer 41 units in a variety of studio and one-, two-, and three-bedroom configurations. The $12 million tower’s design is inspired by principles of Art Deco and rises as a south-facing L, increasing the reach of natural light into each apartment and also creating a 6000-square-foot courtyard for residents to enjoy. Green roofs grace the seventh- and eighth-floor setbacks, while low-E, Energy Star-certified windows, an efficient rooftop boiler, and continuous exterior insulation will aim to lower the building’s utility bills. Other green features include low-VOC paints and materials, dual flush toilets, CFLs, and Kone Ecospec elevators. The building’s lobby includes local plants and shrubbery that will receive water from a rainwater collection system. Developer New Destiny Housing is considering applying for a LEED Silver rating, but will participate in an NYSERDA incentive program.

We’ll be signing off today for the holiday weekend, but before we do that, I want to point out a couple of interesting green building statistics: one group collected by NAHB and the other which was mentioned during yesterday’s Green Building Initiative webinar discussing insurance and surety issues for green construction projects. During the webinar, one of the panelists noted that only 20 percent of his company’s (XL Specialty Insurance) insured design professionals consider themselves “very experienced” in green design- obviously a percentage to which XL is paying close attention in the context of green risk management. On a different track, the National Association of Home Builders recently released figures from a survey of multi-family builders and developers. While 74 percent of respondents said that their buyers and renters are willing to pay more for green amenities, the median additional amount that they’re willing to pay is just 2 percent.

Designed by Perkins+Will and Lilker Associates Consulting Engineers, the New Space for Women’s Health will be New York City’s first stand-alone birthing center, offering women and their families prenatal and postpartum care, childbirth education, social work, and psychological services. The three-story project is pursuing a LEED Gold rating from USGBC; green features will include efficient HVAC, water, and lighting systems, among other LEED standards. Lilker’s healthcare division sought to design a “relaxed and warm setting” for patients that simultaneously conserves energy. The team is also considering installing wind turbines and solar hot water panels. The 8000-square-foot project involves the conversion of a former parking garage on West 30th Street in Midtown and should open sometime in 2010.

Trinity Real Estate- which is currently developing the mixed-use, Brennan Beer Gorman-designed 330 Hudson Street to LEED Silver specifications- is the largest landlord in the Hudson Square submarket, where it has been converting industrial space into Class A commercial offices since 1983. The firm is the real estate arm of Trinity Church, the downtown Episcopal parish that currently enjoys a 93 percent occupancy rate for its portfolio. Trinity currently owns and operates six million square feet across eighteen buildings north of Canal Street and west of Sixth Avenue. Earlier this year, the firm opened its new 16,000-square-foot headquarters space at One Hudson Square (75 Varick Street), designed by architects Mancini Duffy to achieve a LEED for Commercial Interiors (”LEED-CI”) Silver rating.