Battery Park City

Battery Park City

Book It: LEED Gold Battery Park City Library Set To Open

Wed

Mar

It's an interesting place, Battery Park City. While it effectively exists apart from New York City -- and all the built-in efficiencies that make New York City such a surprisingly green place -- Battery Park City is both a pretty nice place, and very green in its own right, at least in terms of its ultra-green condo and rental buildings. Yes, Battery Park City is also home to Manhattan's first Applebee's, but the views are great and the buildings are nice and if there was one thing that one could grouse about as regards Battery Park City -- besides the aforementioned Applebee's -- it would be that it doesn't have a 23,000-volume LEED Gold branch of the New York Public Library. Those so inclined should do their grousing now, because Battery Park City is getting that LEED Gold public library you're always grumbling about.

Number Six Sludge: Now Available in Manhattan's Greenest Neighborhood, Somehow? (UPDATED)

Mon

Feb

by David Roth

0 comments

Well, this is kind of surprising. Last week's post on the continued use -- and impending legislation to curtail said use -- of mega-nasty heating sludge Number Six heating oil pinpointed upper Manhattan and the South Bronx as the neighborhoods in which ol' Number Six was most commonly used. And while that's still true, the Downtown Express reports that six buildings in Battery Park City, Manhattan's most ostentatiously green residential neighborhood, are using Number Four or Number Six oil to heat their buildings. This isn't in violation of BPC's vaunted green building code (and isn't mentioned in LEED's guidelines, either), mostly because it seems like no one really thought about it until recently. Presumably, that's going to be changing soon.

Something There is That Loves a Glass Curtain Wall: Poets House Unveils LEED Gold Hopeful HQ in Battery Park City

Wed

Sep

by David Roth

0 comments

Yeah, the title is a misquote -- the line, from Robert Frost's "Mending Wall," is actually "something there is that doesn't love a wall." But that doesn't really fit when it's applied to the opening of the much anticipated, LEED Gold-hopeful home of the literary nonprofit Poets House in Battery Park City. The glass-walled duplex is notable both for being (as Robin Pogrebin of the New York Times notes) one of the first arts organizations to open downtown since September 11 and for its striking architectural adventurousness and sustainable design elements. There is nothing not to love about what's in these walls, in short. So maybe the title was a misleading reference, then. My point, really, was to remind you that I know some poetry. So mission accomplished there, obviously. But, right, Poets House. Here are some things to know about it:

Tour: Teardrop Park

Posted by Urban Green on July 14, 2009 - 2:26pm

Date/Time:

July 14, 2009 - 4:00pm - 6:00pm

AIA Continuing Education Credit: HSW/SD 1.0

Please join us on a tour of Battery Park City's Teardrop Park.

The desire to build and operate a sustainable public park influenced every aspect of Teardrop Park’s development, from material selection to contractor practices. Not only is the Battery Park City park layout and program a response to the microclimatic asymmetry created by the buildings and winds off the Hudson; the varied fabricated soils were also meticulously calibrated to create optimum growing conditions. Based on decades-long research into urban soils and non-toxic plant maintenance, environmental aspects of the park’s design include fully organic soils and maintenance regimes that don’t rely on pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides. Treated and recycled gray-water from the adjacent LEED Gold-rated Solaire Building and stormwater runoff from the site captured in an underground storage pipe supply all of the park’s irrigation needs.

Tags: Battery Park City, Parks