Buffalo State College’s Burchfield Penney Art Center (”BPAC”) is touting itself as New York State’s first green art museum. The $33 million project- which was designed by Gwathmey Siegel and Associates Architects- is aiming for LEED Silver certification from USGBC and is participating in NYSERDA’s New York Energy Smart New Construction program. Climate control, air flow, and energy consumption are obviously key considerations for spaces that preserve art, so the project presented Gwathmey with more green design challenges than a typical LEED project.
November 14th, 2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | ContinuedAll Posts Tagged With: "green cultural institution"
ML: Silver Expansion of Mamaroneck Public Library by BKSK Architects
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.
November 3rd, 2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
Rensselaer’s Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center: Troy, New York
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York opened up its new Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (”EMPAC”) earlier this month. The university selected Grimshaw Architects as the winner of an international competition to design the 220,000-square-foot EMPAC. RPI is applying for a LEED Silver certification from USGBC for the EMPAC, which is actually built into the side of a hill on the university’s campus. EMPAC includes a 1200-seat concert hall, 400-seat theater, and various studios, A/V production rooms, and artists-in-residence studios. A 100-foot tall glass curtain wall provides interior views of the concert hall, which is clad on the exterior in western red cedar and also supports the building’s roof as a structural element.
October 30th, 2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
Monday LEEDoff: Brooklyn Children’s Museum Set to Become Nation’s Greenest
Last Thursday’s New York Times provided an update on the six-year-old renovation of the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, which is set to upen up in May. The museum, located at the corner of St. Marks and Brooklyn Avenues in Crown Heights, hopes to be the first green children’s museum in the country, and is seeking LEED certification. Among its energy-saving attributes are a system of photovoltaic roof panels that will generate about 2.5 percent of its electricity, a geothermal system of heat pumps, and six 300-foot-deep wells that will heat and cool the building.
March 3rd, 2008 | Meredith Taylor | 1 comment | Continued