Week in GreeNYC

It’s somtimes too easy to lose sight of the positive, particularly when news – as it has been around here lately – is so consistently negative. There are still good things happening both in our industry and here in New York City, though, and so on this Thanksgiving I’d like to point out a number of recent green building news items of note that I think we ought to be thankful for. Links are after the jump. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

gbNYC selects green news items of note that were reported across the New York City area during the week of October 26, 2008, including construction progress at two LEED hopeful residential projects- Neil Denari’s HL23 in Chelsea and the Costas Kondylis-designed 80 DeKalb Avenue in Fort Greene, an overview of pending green building legislative initiatives in New Jersey, efforts to green the 2008 New York City Marathon, and a new code of conduct for two aspiring New York State wind power developers.

gbNYC selects green news items of note that were reported across the New York City area during the week of October 5, 2008, including the various pieces of Shea Stadium that will be recycled and sent to other Parks Department facilities, an overview of the green design philosophy of DUMBO-based Leone Design Studio, another lease at the New York Times Tower, details about New York City’s various green roofs as reported by the Wall Street Journal, and New York State’s energy efficiency ranking.

gbNYC selects green news items of note that were reported across the New York City area during the week of September 21, 2008, including high ranks for Columbia University and the Big Apple itself in sustainability, rumblings that Viacom may still leave SL Green’s LEED-EB hopeful 1515 Broadway, the opening of JetBlue’s $875 million Terminal 5 at JFK, and a joint effort from LIPA and ConEd to study the feasibility of an off-shore wind farm, 10 miles off of the Rockaways in Queens.

gbNYC selects green news items of note that were reported across the New York City area during the week of September 7, 2008, including remarks from Bruce Fowle on a proposed zero carbon museum along the Housatonic River in Massachusetts, the opening of a 44,000-square-foot New York City headquarters space for Phoenix-based solar panel provider First Solar in the New York Times Tower, remarks from Larry Silverstein and others on the future of the World Trade Center site, including its numerous proposed green engineering features, and a lottery upstate for families to purchase affordable homes designed to LEED specifications.

gbNYC selects green news items of note that were reported across the New York City area during the week of August 17, 2008, including Frank Gehry withdrawing (or perhaps not) from the Theater for a New Audience project at the BAM Cultural District in Fort Greene, the recent topping out of Macklowe Properties’ LEED Gold hopeful 510 Madison Avenue, a proposal for a wind farm on the Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island, and the energy-efficient glass skin of SJP Properties’ 11 Times Square- also pursuing a LEED Gold rating- beginning to take shape above Eighth Avenue.

gbNYC selects green news items of note that were reported across the New York City area during the week of August 3, 2008, including the installation of a living wall above Pure Yoga on East 86th Street, more delays for Bruce Ratner’s controversial Atlantic Yards development, a review of Cook + Fox’ LEED hopeful Lucida condo project on the Upper East Side, and plans for another speculative office tower along 8th Avenue from Boston Properties and Related, in between 11 Times Square and 250 West 55th Street.

gbNYC selects green news items of note that were reported across the New York City area during the week of July 13, 2008, including Brooklyn’s first green boutique hotel, the Nu Hotel, a review of MoMA’s much-anticipated Home Delivery exhibition of prefabricated houses, Merrill Lynch’s decision to stay put at the World Financial Center, and a decision from the ESDC on Columbia’s LEED-ND Manhattanville expansion plans.

gbNYC selects green news items of note that were reported across the New York City area during the week of June 29, 2008, including a number of green buildings earning spots on the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce’s 8th annual Building Brooklyn Awards, bad news at Ground Zero on a number of fronts, missing green features at the $2 billion Xanadu project in the New Jersey Meadowlands, and the unveiling of what will soon be Long Island’s largest green building.

gbNYC selects green news items of note that were reported across the New York City area during the week of June 8, 2008, including the Port Authority’s selection of a fuel cell provider for clean power at the World Trade Center redevelopment, an increase in Class A Midtown office vacancies since the start of the year thanks to an influx of new and subleased space from, among others, Bank of America Tower, the creation of a new office to expedite the redevelopment of New York City brownfields, and the first-ever America-Israel Green Buildings Conference held in the Meadowlands.