Adaptive Reuse

Construction is underway on a 7900-square-foot environment-friendly gymnasium in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn that's set to open up this fall. In building out the second floor of a warehouse at 232 Varet Street, the Green Fitness Studio will incorporate a variety of sustainable design features, including rubber exercise flooring made from recycled car tires. The gym's interior lighting will come from CFL and LED installations and most exercise machines will be repurposed, in addition to being self-powered or cordless. Yoga, pilates, and spin classes will be held in a 2000-square-foot atrium covered with efficient glass that will provide an abundance of natural daylight to the gym's interiors. Dual-flush toilets, recycled glass and metal tiles, and automatic soap and towel dispensers will furnish the bathrooms. Manager Rachel Borgen, whose father owns the building and runs his window guard manufacturing company out of the first floor of 232 Varet, is also considering the installation of solar panels on the gym's roof at some point down the line.

The Barton Group's corporate headquarters in Glens Falls, New York is only the seventh building in New York State to earn a LEED Platinum rating from USGBC (and just the 105th in the entire country). The project scope contemplated the renovation of Six Warren Street, a three-story, 16,000-square-foot brick building in downtown Glens Falls that dates from 1865. Design-builder Bette & Cring completed the project in August of 2007 and Barton earned formal certification back in January. The project should boost the building's energy efficiency to 49 percent over New York State building code requirements and will source 100 percent of its electricity needs from wind power sources.