Green Townhomes

Harlem Block Party: Entire Block of 135th Street Slated for Green Retrofits

Mon

Nov

Some blocks get all the history. West 135th Street in Harlem, between 7th Avenue and Lenox, was one of the proudest blocks in the neighborhood during Harlem's glory years. In 1910, the St. Philip's Episcopal Church -- the wealthiest of uptown's black churches during that period -- bought the block of homes on 135th Street, with the intention of renting them to parishioners. At the time, the row of stately townhomes were the first buildings that far uptown to belong to an African American landlord. The block was later the home (and one of the main subjects) of the famed photographer James Van Der Zee. These days, the block is notably worse for wear, but headed for another encounter with New York City history.

Trenton Makes (Its Case as a Green Hub), The World Takes

Tue

Sep

by David Roth

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We are not made of stone. There's a wide streak of New Jersey Partisanship running through gbNYC, which means that every bit of good green news coming out of the Garden State is greeted by -- well, we don't pop champagne at gbNYC World Headquarters, but everyone digs it. We reported on Trenton's very ambitious Trenton Green Initiative way back in June, and have followed -- with great interest and not a little bit of home-state pride -- two large-scale mixed-use green real estate development projects in Jersey's state capital. The first -- Full Spectrum's 2.33 acre, $175 million urban in-fill mixed-use Trenton Town Center development -- got off to an exciting start in 2007, but is by all accounts dead.

243 East 82nd Street: Oyster Capital Aims to Certify Gotham's First LEED for Homes Townhouse

Thu

Jan

by Stephen Del Percio

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We talk a lot here about how critical it is – both from a legal perspective and to ensure the ultimate delivery of a high-performance building – for a green building project team to coordinate its efforts as early as possible in the construction process, both in terms of defining green goals for the project, as well as minimizing the risk that design or other programming requirements are not accurately translated into the contract documents. Teddy Schiff, president of New York City-based Oyster Capital Group, clearly grasps these unique characteristics of sustainable design and spent nearly six months making sure his project team at 243 East 82nd Street understood exactly what would be required of it in order to execute architect Daniel Frisch's design for what should become Gotham's first single-family townhouse certified under USGBC's LEED for Homes ("LEED-H") rating system. Mr.

Nzinga Townhomes to Bring Green, Modular Construction to Bed-Stuy

Wed

Nov

by Stephen Del Percio

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Even in the dicey economy, construction financing for the Nzinga Townhomes in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn is moving forward and developer Yolande Nicholson hopes to break ground on the modular green project early in 2009. Designed by Garrison Architects , each 2900-square-foot condominium townhouse includes 2000 square feet of living space for owners with an additional 900 square feet of separate rentable apartment space.

Units are outfitted with Energy Star appliances, optional solar power, efficient heating and cooling systems, and compact fluorescents. In addition to offering heating and cooling benefits, an exterior living green wall (which you can make out in the rough rendering) is irrigated by a building-integrated graywater system. It’s presently unclear whether the project is pursuing any third-party certification for its green efforts. The project’s modular design should trim the construction schedule in half.