Monday LEEDoff
ML: Gold Weeksville Heritage Center by Caples Jefferson Breaks Ground in Bed-Stuy
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Pamela Green, executive director of the Weeksville Heritage Society, along with other Brooklyn and city leaders, broke ground in a ceremony last Wednesday on a new 19,000-square-foot educational and cultural center at 1698 Bergen Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The $19.5 million Weeksville Heritage Center, designed by architects Caples Jefferson, will seek a LEED Gold rating from USGBC. Weeksville- now known as Bedford-Stuyvesant- was an African-American community that began in Brooklyn in 1838 as a refuge for slaves fleeing the South.
Popularity: 13% [?]
14Jul2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
ML: Skanska USA to Seek Empire State Building’s First Platinum Rating
Skanska USA, the U.S. division of Swedish construction giant Skanska AB, is retrofitting the 32nd floor of the Empire State Building in pursuit of a LEED for Commercial Interiors Platinum rating from USGBC. Ranked by Engineering News-Record as America’s number 1 green contractor for 2007, Skanska USA’s area general manager Steve Pressler explained the firm’s philosophy behind the move in a press release, noting that Skanska’s “push for Platinum LEED certification not only aligns with our core business philosophies, but demonstrates to our current and existing clients our commitment to the green movement.” The construction giant signed a deal for a 15-year lease on the tower’s 32nd floor and will take 24,400 square feet upon moving from its current headquarters at 136 Madison Avenue.
Popularity: 16% [?]
7Jul2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
ML: Anheuser-Busch Warehouse, Hunts Point, South Bronx
Anheuser-Busch broke ground last September on a 167,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility on Hunts Point in the South Bronx. The $40 million, project is seeking an unspecified level of LEED certification and should open up sometime in October. The warehouse will sit on the site of a former brownfield and is supported by a pile foundation system; soils at the site are extremely unstable and the piles are necessary to brace the heavy traffic from Anheuser-Busch’s local fleet of 70 freight trucks. Specific green features also include a graywater irrigation system and native landscaping across the warehouse’s 13.5 acres.
Popularity: 19% [?]
30Jun2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 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
ML: Green Construction Booming in Manhattan (Photos)
Last Thursday, I spent an afternoon out of the office and took some construction progress photos of a number of the LEED projects that we’ve presented here at gbNYC. I started out on 42nd Street at SJP Properties’ LEED Gold hopeful 11 Times Square before heading downtown to Battery Park City’s Riverhouse (seeking LEED Platinum) and Goldman Sachs Tower (Gold). We haven’t written about it yet (we will) but I finished up with some shots of Related’s Robert A.M. Stern-designed Harrison condominium development on 76th and Amsterdam which is aiming for Silver. As you’ll see, steel at 11 Times Square is well out of the ground and lagging just a few floors behind the tower’s concrete core.
Popularity: 28% [?]
2Jun2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
Monday LEEDoff: Bank Inks Sublease at –EB Tower in Midtown
In addition to its 250 West 55th Street project that will aim for LEED Gold, Boston Properties is currently pursuing LEED for Existing Buildings (”LEED-EB”) certification for two of its Manhattan office buildings –Times Square Tower (1 Times Square) and 599 Lexington Avenue (between East 52nd and 53rd Streets). Designed by architect Edward Larrabee Barnes, Boston Properties built the 47-story 599 Lexington back in 1986. Last week, the real estate investment bank Savills Granite (formerly Granite Partners) subleased 18,000 square feet on 599 Lexington’s 36th floor, requiring additional office space after a recent merger with London-based property manager Savills.
Popularity: 8% [?]
5May2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
Monday LEEDoff: AOL Opens New HQ at 770 Broadway
Last week, AOL officially opened its new corporate headquarters at 770 Broadway, relocating from its former base in Dulles, Virginia. The building, which dates from 1903 and was designed by Daniel Burnham (the Flatiron Building), occupies the entire block between East 8th and 9th Streets and is currently pursuing a LEED for Existing Buildings (”LEED-EB”) rating. AOL’s new space was designed by Mancini Duffy, and it too will seek LEED certification, presumably under the Commercial Interiors system, though specific details on those efforts are unavailable. Landmarked and owned by Vornado Realty Trust, 770 Broadway is the former site of the Wanamaker Department Store. The tower currently offers 165,000 square feet of retail space; tenants include Ann Taylor Loft, Kmart, and Bank of America. AOL’s lease is for 152,000 square feet over two floors at the 15-story tower until 2022.
Popularity: 15% [?]
21Apr2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
Monday LEEDoff: Art Omi Visitors Center & Gallery- Ghent, New York
The Omi International Arts Center is a non-profit institution in Ghent, New York that provides working residency for international artists of various mediums. Since 1998, it’s also been the home of The Fields Sculpture Park, which is open year-round to the public and provides outdoor exhibition space for contemporary works of art and sculpture. The $1.2 million Charles B. Benenson Visitors Center & Gallery, which will officially open on June 21, recently earned Columbia County, New York’s first (though unspecified) LEED rating.
Popularity: 9% [?]
14Apr2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
Monday LEEDoff: Nationals Open Gates at America’s First Green Ballpark
Last week, brand-new $611 million Nationals Park, home to the National League East’s Washington Nationals baseball club, officially received a LEED Silver rating from USGBC, becoming the first baseball stadium in the country to earn the designation. Just a scant few days before Major League Baseball’s 2008 Opening Day, the ballpark earned 33 LEED points for a design by HOK Sport that, among other things, respects the park’s location in Southeast adjacent to D.C.’s Anacostia River. So far, so good for the Nats at their new home; Ryan Zimmerman cracked a walk-off solo home run in the bottom of the ninth to give the club a 3-2 win over the Atlanta Braves in the first regular season game at the ballpark on Sunday night.
Popularity: 12% [?]
31Mar2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 2 comments | Continued
Monday LEEDoff: A Peek at Brooklyn’s First Living Wall in Williamsburg
Consulting team Sphere Trending recently posted some photos on its blog of the Oulu Bar & Eco-Lounge in Williamsburg, home of Brooklyn’s first living wall. The wall covers the front façade of the 2500-square-foot building, which is aiming for LEED Gold certification and was designed by architect Evangeline Dennie. Dennie has some amazing installation photos of the vegetal wall in her online portfolio. Having dealt with these kinds of wall installations a little myself, I can tell you they’re not easy to mount or maintain, so my hat goes off to Dennie for making this one look so good. Some of Oulu’s other green features include biodegradable ceramic tile on the walls, water-based grout sealer in the bathrooms, natural Mica panels promoting light exchange, sheetrock exterior walls made of recycled material and post-consumer recycled paper, and a garage door that provides natural ventilation.
Popularity: 8% [?]
24Mar2008 | Meredith Taylor | 1 comment | Continued
Monday LEEDoff: Milliken Floor Covering Showroom Opens, Seeks -CI at 875 Avenue of the Americas
Spartanburg, South Carolina-based Milliken & Company is one of the largest textile and chemical manufacturers in the world. Recently, it opened the Milliken Floor Covering Showroom at 875 Avenue of the Americas (6th Avenue at 31st Street) in the Greeley Square Building. The space was designed by architects Mancini Duffy, and consultant Catalyst Partners will help Milliken in its pursuit of an unspecified level of LEED for Commercial Interiors (“LEED-CI”) certification. The showroom features sustainable interiors by interior design firm Studio Q, as well as separate “zones” for each brand of Milliken floor covering: Milliken Contract, Milliken Residential, and Milliken Hospitality. Specific green design features include ceramic metal halide lamps, daylight sensors, low-VOC paints and sealants, and recycled medium-density fiberboard.
Popularity: 7% [?]
17Mar2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
Monday LEEDoff: Poly Prep Lower School Expansion at 50 Prospect Park West (Tour on 3/11)
Last fall, the Poly Prep Lower School at 50 Prospect Park West in Brooklyn completed an 18,000-square-foot expansion project, designed by Sam White of Platt Byard Dovell White Architects. The $2 million effort expanded the school’s original 21,800-square-foot space in the adjacent Hulbert Mansion- which was reconfigured as part of the expansion- and is aiming for the first LEED certification awarded to any school in New York City. Contractor RCDolner built the addition in a scant nine months; it was the firm’s first LEED project and involved a number of significant design challenges.
Popularity: 7% [?]
10Mar2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
Monday LEEDoff: 200 Delaware Avenue in Buffalo Harvests 7200 Tons of Demolition Debris
A project in downtown Buffalo, New York is taking LEED’s Materials & Resources credit category quite seriously and expects to collect close to 7,200 tons of demolition material during the $68 million rehabilitation of what was once the Thaddeus J. Dulski Federal Office Building into the mixed-use 200 Delaware Avenue. Designed by architects Pfohl, Roberts and Biggie, the project team is slowly razing the existing 15-story building that dates from the 1970s and sorting each component of the structure, from its pipes and wires to light fixtures. According to co-developers Uniland Development Co. and Acquest Development, the effort should conserve 6,434 tons of concrete exterior panels, 570 tons of interior concrete and brick, 200 tons of steel and metal, and 10 tons of aluminum.
Popularity: 10% [?]
18Feb2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 1 comment | Continued-
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