New Jersey

The private K-8 Willow School in Gladstone, New Jersey has already received a LEED Gold rating from USGBC for its main building. Phase II of the school’s green construction efforts included a 13,000-square-foot structure dubbed “the Barn,” which includes a middle school, dining hall, and performing arts space. Not to be outdone by the main building, the Barn recently earned a LEED Platinum rating based on green features that include recycled Douglas fir and terrazzo glass tile recycled from airplane windshields.

There are only four Frank Lloyd Wright-designed houses in the state of New Jersey. One of them- located in Millstone, in Somerset County and dating from 1954- was purchased by architects Lawrence and Sharon Tarantino back in 1988. The house is an example of Wright’s Usonian style, which contemplated his vision for a new American architectural vernacular. Approximately 100 Wright-designed Usonian homes dot the country, and each is a good reminder that green architecture is not a new phenomenon. Wright executed his design for the Bachman-Wilson House- like all other Usonian homes- with a number of green design features.

The Campbell Soup Company has been headquartered in Camden, New Jersey since 1869 and is in the midst of a $72 million upgrade to its corporate campus that is also part of an overall redevelopment of Camden’s Gateway District. Part of that effort includes a new 100,000-square-foot, employee services building designed by Philadelphia-based KlingStubbins. The project, which should break ground shortly, intends to seek an unspecified level of LEED certification and will serve as a gateway into the rest of the Campbell campus. A glass curtain wall allows natural light to flood the building’s lobby, as well as employee spaces on both the first and second floors. The remainder of the building is clad in brick with colored glass interspersed throughout. The building will also be connected to others in the campus, which allowed KlingStubbins to also include a landscaped courtyard as part of its design program.

Greenock Capital is executing a green renovation of the historic two-story Risk Building at 535 Springfield Avenue in Summit, New Jersey. The building dates from 1873 and is named for Dr. William H. Risk, a medical doctor who settled in Summit that same year. Greenock has retained Wesketch Architecture of Millington, New Jersey as the architect of record for the project, which will preserve much of the building’s original granite and brownstone facade features. Although the project is incorporating numerous green design elements, it does not appear that it will seek any formal third-party green building certification. The new structure will be called the Claremont Corporate Center and include various energy-efficient upgrades, ranging from extensive daylighting and interior occupancy sensors to new elevators and exterior lighting.

Earlier this week, Hudson County Assemblyman Ruben Ramos of Hoboken sponsored two green building bills as New Jersey’s fall legislative session opened up in Trenton. The first, A1626, would require affordable housing to implement green design features, though the bill as proposed does not mandate any particular formal certification or include specifics on how the legislation would be enforced. The second, A2065, would provide low-interest loans available to developers who construct or renovate a building that qualifies as a “high-performance green building,” which is defined in the bill as “a building having at least 15,000 square feet in total floor area that is designed and constructed in a manner that achieves at least a [S]ilver rating according to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System as adopted by the United States Green Building Council.” Ramos was also a co-sponsor of last year’s Green Building Tax Credit Act (S1077, which is apparently still pending before the legislature); that bill would provide developers with up to $20 million in annual tax credits which they’d be able to apply to their state corporate, income, sewer, and water taxes.

Notwithstanding its 791-space parking garage, 14 Maple Avenue in Morristown is about to become the greenest building in New Jersey. The 30,000-square foot, four-story structure is being built by the Morristown Parking Authority and will seek a LEED Platinum rating from USGBC. In addition to housing Authority offices, the building will also be home to the non-profit offices of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, The Seeing Eye Inc., the Fannie E. Rippel Foundation, the Morristown Partnership and the Morris Arts Council. The parking garage will allot spaces for both members of the public and building employees. David Grant, the Dodge Foundation’s president, stated that “our goals were to create a green building that is both educational and inspirational.” In addition to bamboo and cork covered floors, plants are essential to the green features of the building.

gbNYC has noted two green projects on the Hoboken side of the Hudson previously; we pointed you to SJP Properties’ Waterfront Corporate Center III and Bijou Properties’ Dean Marchetto-designed, 180-unit condo project on 14th Street, both of which are seeking LEED ratings from USGBC. Green efforts in Hoboken aren’t limited to these projects alone, though; Bijou is also developing the Garden Street Lofts at 14th and Bloomfield Streets, which were also designed by Marchetto and are seeking a LEED Silver rating. Meanwhile, Mayor David Roberts recently announced a tax credit plan for residential owners that install solar panels and is quick to point out Hoboken’s taxi fleet that features seven hybrids.

The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission’s Center for Environmental and Scientific Education and William D. McDowell Observatory in Lyndhurst is just a stone’s throw away from the Sports Complex. The 10,000-square-foot structure housing the Center will be operated by Ramapo College as a study center for both astronomy and environmental education; the NJMC is seeking an unspecified level of LEED certification for the project. Designed by architect Fredric A. Rosen and built by general contractor Bernard Associates, the Center includes a number of classrooms, science labs, and a multipurpose room geared for use by both K-12 students and the general public, offering an environmental curriculum that will also emphasize the building’s sustainable features.

The Richard Stockton College expansion project is an excellent case study for how to build green in a small space while acknowledging development’s impact on its natural surroundings. Richard Stockton was originally constructed in 1973 on New Jersey’s Pinelands National Park Reserve before the land was protected. The Pinelands include over one million acres of farms, wetlands, and forest and are located in the center of the southern part of the state. Expanding Stockton’s existing site footprint would have translated into additional costs and time through the NJDEP/Pinelands permitting process. Instead, the school decided to simply build on top of an existing one-story laboratory building.

The theme for Architectural Record’s 2008 Record Houses was sustainability, and the magazine stuck with green for its web-only Unbuilt Houses feature that was released earlier this week. One local project made the list- the Swell House in Highland Park, New Jersey, designed by New York City-based Studio ST Architects and Z-A. The $400,000 addition will raise the total square footage of the house from an original 900 square feet to 1900, though it’s unclear how far along, if at all, construction has proceeded. The design concept for the home stresses the intersection- and indeed mutation- of old and new living space while acknowledging the site’s local topography, which is just to the east of New Brunswick. A major thrust of the house is the architects’ investigation of “the properties of the most mundane suburban cladding material- the clapboard,” which is used in a variety of functional ways.