East Village

Fanboyish eruptions of enthusiasm and admiration are presumably not what you, The Reader, turn to gbNYC to read. (Neither are rhyming headlines, but... yeah, see what I did there?) No, you're here for the buried links to "classic" rock performances and self-referential leads and, theoretically, news on green building in Gotham. Which I do try to keep in mind, but... have you seen the new Cooper Union laboratory building at 41 Cooper Square? The building, which was designed by Morphosis and Gruzen Samton, is super-innovative inside and out, very interesting to look at, peerlessly sustainable and generally as graceful a marriage of form and function as anything of its size downtown. It may not be your cup of aesthetic tea (mmm, aesthetic tea), but 41 Cooper Square is, for green building heads, definitely worth an ogle.

Back in April, AOL opened up its new headquarters at 770 Broadway, which dates from 1903 and was designed by Daniel Burnham. The 15-story tower spans the entire block between East 8th and 9th Streets and is currently in pursuit of a LEED for Existing Buildings ("LEED-EB") rating. In an effort to demonstrate that there is still good green real estate news here in New York City, AOL has announced that it will take the tower's entire sixth floor (76,000 square feet) from owner Vornado , bumping its total at 770 Broadway to around 228,000 square feet across three floors. Architects Mancini Duffy designed AOL's interiors, which are currently seeking an unspecified level of LEED for Commercial Interiors ("LEED-CI") certification, though it's unclear whether the firm will also design the company's sixth floor addition. As we noted previously, 770 Broadway is landmarked and was the former home of the Wanamaker Department Store. Jones Lang LaSalle represented AOL in the lease negotiations for the sixth floor addition.