LEED-CI

Perkins Eastman announced today that it has earned Gold certification under the LEED for Commercial Interiors rating system for General Electric's Energy Financial Services Division's 280,000-square-foot headquarters space in Stamford, Connecticut. The architects' Stamford office collaborated with LEED consultants Sustainable Design Collective to pursue the designation, which GE deemed critical in order to complement its management of a $4 billion portfolio of renewable energy projects across the world. The relocation project reorganized GE's work environment by shifting from a 90 percent office layout to a 70 percent open plan, which assisted Perkins Eastman in delivering increased natural light to the space's interior.

At its annual meeting back on June 18, the East Midtown Partnership presented 515 Madison Avenue with its 2009 Building of the Year award. As you'll recall, the tower recently underwent a $5 million renovation and continues to pursue a LEED-EBOM rating from USGBC. The 42-story neo-classical building is owed by Newmark Knight Frank chair Jeffrey Gural and was built in 1931 from an original design by J.E.R. Carpenter. Rosen Johnson Architects executed the renovation project, which included an expansion and upgrades to the building's lobby. The porte-cochere (carriage door) Madison Avenue entrance was redesigned to emphasize the building's signage by allowing natural light to penetrate its canopy. Gural is also pursuing LEED-CI certification for 515 Madison's 13th and 14th floors, where green design features include recycled-content carpets, lighting occupancy sensors, and dual-flush toilets. The East Midtown Partnership acknowledged 515 Madison's "extensive renovation designed to make it an environmentally-friendly 'green' building, and increased occupancy in the process;" we recently noted a trio of leases that were finalized at the building.

Thanks, perhaps, to a $5 million facelift and LEED-EBOM application, 515 Madison Avenue (at East 53rd Street) has been a recent bright spot in an otherwise unspectacular Manhattan commercial real estate market thus far in 2009. Recently, three deals were finalized at the 42-story tower: (1) a 22,300-square-foot, 15-year lease at $65 per square foot on the building's fourth and fifth floors for the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; (2) a 9100-square-foot, 10-year lease for communications company Kreab & Gavin Anderson Worldwide, which will take the entire 18th floor at $65 per square foot; and (3) 1900 square feet to Hamilton Investment Funds over five years for half of the tower's 27th floor at $67 per square foot. Newmark Knight Frank chair Jeffrey Gural owns the neo-classical 515 Madison, which was built in 1931 and originally designed by J.E.R. Carpenter. Gural retained Rosen Johnson Architects in connection with the building's renovation project, which included an expansion and upgrades to the building's lobby.

Just a quick post to point you to an event of interest tomorrow, Thursday, April 2, out in Montclair, New Jersey at the LEED-CS hopeful GreenWorks on Grove project which we noted here at gbNYC earlier this year. Montclair's Planning & Community Development department is sponsoring a panel discussion about green architecture and construction with the GreenWorks project team, including Paul Sionas of Sionas Architecture. The event begins at 7:00 at GreenWorks on Grove and is a quick walk from Montclair's New Jersey Transit station on Walnut Street. The panel will also include the project team from Montclair's other LEED project: Academy Square, which we've yet to profile here at gbNYC. In addition to the panel discussion, attendees will have the ability to tour the GreenWorks on Grove project. For more information, give the Montclair Planning Department a call at 973-509-4953.

• GreenWorks on Grove (gbNYC)