All Posts Tagged With: "energy efficiency"

As I rode on Amtrak back to New York from Boston, I was struck by just how much fun I had over the past few days at Greenbuild. I met so many of you in person, and I can’t express in words just how much of a thrill it was to finally put a face on the virtual relationships that I’ve built since I started gbNYC. There were some things about Greenbuild that were better than others, and I’ll present them to you in reverse order- the ugly, the bad, and the good from Greenbuild Boston, 2008:

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 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.

gbNYC selects green news items of note that were reported across the New York City area during the week of October 5, 2008, including the various pieces of Shea Stadium that will be recycled and sent to other Parks Department facilities, an overview of the green design philosophy of DUMBO-based Leone Design Studio, another lease at the New York Times Tower, details about New York City’s various green roofs as reported by the Wall Street Journal, and New York State’s energy efficiency ranking.

The Daily News is reporting that White Coffee Corp.- a third-generation, family-owned coffee business based in Queens- has earned an unspecified level (and type) of LEED certification for its headquarters building at 18-35 38 Street in Long Island City, across the street from the Steinway Piano factory. Details about the project are slim, but did include the installation of energy-efficient lighting throughout the company’s space, as well as a reorganization of truck delivery routes to conserve fuel. White is also now recycling the chaff (protective casing) of its coffee beans in cooperation with a Queens-based contractor. The company was founded back in 1939 and has 120 employees, offering over 300 varieties of organic and fair trade-certified types of coffees.

The P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in Long Island City is an affiliate of MoMA and offers exhibition space for some of the most experimental modern art in the world, featuring over 50 different exhibitions annually, as well as various musical and performance programming. P.S.1 was founded in 1971 as the Institute for Art and Urban Resources Inc., which installed art exhibitions in various abandoned and otherwise underutilized spaces across the city. After finding a permanent home in a former Long Island City school building in 1976, P.S.1 became an affiliate of MoMA back in 2000. It recently commissioned Danish energy consultants Leif Hansen to create a green, energy-efficient renovation plan. Engineer and Leif Hansen executive Flemming Kristensen called it a “unique challenge” to evaluate ways to conserve energy within the museum environment. “You have to redesign the lighting so that it will not damage the artwork,” he said. “It’s a bit like reinventing the light bulb.”