Manhattan-based GreenbergFarrow Architects recently completed the 346,000-square-foot IKEA in Red Hook, Brooklyn; it’s the tenth such store that the firm has designed. Lost in the hoopla surrounding the Swedish giant’s first New York City retail outlet is that the Red Hook iteration is applying for a LEED Silver rating predicated on a number of green design elements. The Red Hook IKEA sits on the site of a former brownfield and demolition of existing, Civil War-era buildings required significant asbestos abatement efforts. However, perhaps the most exciting green design features are those that most folks will never get to see.

Designed by Manhattan-based Magnusson Architecture and Planning, Melrose Commons is one of only six projects in the state of New York that is participating in USGBC’s LEED for Neighborhood Development (”LEED-ND”) Pilot Program. The 2000-unit, mixed-use and income development will set aside 50 percent of available units for households at or below 60 percent of HUD income limits. The city is currently soliciting developers for three individual parcels on East 162nd and East 163rd Streets between Courtlandt and Melrose Avenues in the South Bronx, and individual buildings will be required to comply with both NYSERDA’s Multifamily Performance Program and the Enterprise Green Communities rating criteria.

New York House magazine’s first annual Best in Green Building Competition has been ongoing here in 2008 in no small part due to the efforts of gbNYC’s Paul McGinniss, who also served on the panel of judges that whittled the competition’s entries down to 12 back in September. To be eligible, homes had to be single-family and located in one of the magazine’s upstate editorial coverage areas and built between 2000 and 2006. The judges used criteria from the USGBC’s LEED for Homes system during their review, but a LEED application was not a prerequisite in order to qualify. According to the judges- including McGinniss- energy efficiency emerged as the most important criterion, and the winning home- the 1600-square-foot Porte-Cottom House in Canaan (Columbia County, just southeast of Albany) owns an Energy Star label.

Another LEED project by BKSK Architects (Queens Botanical Gardens, Harsen House, and 124 West 23rd Street) just broke ground last week in Mamaroneck, New York. Designed to achieve a Silver level of certification from USGBC, the Mamaroneck Public Library renovation and expansion project will contemplate a 13,000-square-foot addition to an existing 21,000-square-foot facility, which dates from 1927. BKSK’s design charge was to maintain the historic appeal of the existing structure; the Library’s original reading room wiill be restored and its columns and box pattern facade details replicated. Green features are LEED-standard; energy efficient building systems, extensive daylighting, and recycled-content materials, in addition to a green roof.

Designed by SWBR Architects, the Rochester Institute of Technology’s College for Applied Science and Technology Building was recently awarded LEED Gold certification from USGBC. SWBR’s design includes many of the standard LEED features, including recycled-content and locally-sourced building materials, lighting occupancy sensors and low-VOC paints and sealants. A graywater system that includes two 1500-gallon cisterns should conserve 75 percent of water over a conventional building, and energy efficient building systems are projected to save 21 percent on energy consumption annually. A “living wall” in the building’s lobby also includes a multimedia display to educate both students and visitors about the building’s green features, which earned the project team an additional point under LEED’s innovation credit category.

Cooking Light magazine recently announced that its 2009 FitHouse will be located in Sagaponack, New York; its FitHouse initiative has been ongoing since 2002 and promotes healthy living through a home that features green design, construction, products, and landscaping. Next year’s FitHouse will be designed by Manhattan-based Resolution 4 Architecture as a 3000-square-foot, modern, prefabricated four-bedroom home. In addition to a variety of green features, the house will also include a pool and bocce court. Res 4 principal Joseph Tanney will supervise both design and construction phases of the project and also plans to seek an unspecified level of LEED certification for the Fithouse. The house will include a geothermal heating and cooling system, solar panels, and a graywater system.

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.

gbNYC selects green news items of note that were reported across the New York City area during the week of October 19, 2008, including Williamsburg’s first (though self-proclaimed) green rental building, results of the first Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Auction (CO2 at $3.07 per ton), and a high-profile purchase in Related’s LEED Gold hopeful Superior Ink condos in the West Village, as well as more green leasing turmoil in the wake of the ongoing credit crisis.

We can’t stop writing about 11 Times Square here at gbNYC; the project continues to remain fascinating to us on a number of different levels. Designed by FXFOWLE and aiming for a LEED Gold rating, the 40-story tower has yet to land a single tenant despite assurances from developer SJP Properties that the building would be half-filled by this past summer. That, of course, was before the credit crunch, and the project has, at least in our opinion, become the paradigm for green building projects that continue to move forward through the current market turmoil. Still, yesterday, SJP did announce some good news: the building’s 600 foot high concrete core- the tallest ever in Manhattan office building- has topped out. The core will contain all of the building’s infrastructure- utility risers, elevators, and emergency stairwells- and allowed FXFOWLE to design 11 Times Square with fewer perimeter steel columns- a significant green design feature. SJP expects to top the steel out sometime next month and will be ready for yet-to-be-determined tenants by 2010.

Although the credit crisis has definitely taken its toll on local green building projects in a variety of ways, the Post’s Steve Cuozzo reported today that Larry Silverstein may be close to landing a tenant who will at least partially replace the space that HSBC was slated to occupy at LEED Gold-certified 7 World Trade Center. HSBC’s potential move to five floors at the green tower was heralded, but a deal to sell its Midtown headquarters at 452 Fifth Avenue (at West 40th Street) fell apart several weeks ago after bidders came up $180 million short of the bank’s $600 million asking price. Accordingly, HSBC very quietly pulled out of its agreement to move downtown to Manhattan’s first LEED-certified commercial office building. Now, the German bank West LB is “in ‘real’ discussions” with Mr. Silverstein for space across three floors.