Adaptive Reuse

We make no great effort to conceal our pro-New Jersey bias here at gbNYC, but it's especially gratifying when a Garden State-based project comes along that would be exciting even if it were not located a short drive -- depending on traffic -- from where Stephen and I grew up. GreenWorks on Grove, which Steve profiled earlier in its life cycle, is one such project -- an old gas station in Montclair re-imagined as a super-green 3,500-foot retail space. Considering the astonishing suite of green design elements built into GreenWorks on Grove -- from solar panels and high-performance glass to individual electric submetering and super-efficient HVAC and plumbing systems -- it was probably a given that GreenWorks would get the LEED certification it sought. And yet it's still worth celebrating just how thoroughly GreenWorks has succeeded in what was a very ambitious bit of adaptive reuse. They were awarded LEED Gold for Core and Shell earlier this week.

Newwork Real Estate is a Newark, New Jersey-based real estate developer currently focusing on adaptive reuse projects in the Newark area. It recently hired New Brunswick-based Tekton Development to perform general contracting services for the Richardson Building Lofts, a 6-story, 66,000-square-foot conversion of a former jewelry factory into 67 residential rental lofts. The property is located at 50-60 Columbia Street, just south of both Newark Penn Station and the Prudential Center (Newwork calls it a ten minute walk) and dates from 1912.

An interesting adaptive reuse project is underway over in Montclair, New Jersey. Designed by Sionas Architecture and built by Jack Finn & Company for owner Cadbury Properties , GreenWorks on Grove will convert the site of a former gas station into a three-unit speculative commercial retail building at 100 Grove Street in suburban Montclair. The project is applying for a Silver rating under USGBC's LEED for Core and Shell system; tenants who choose to build their spaces out under LEED for Commercial Interiors will find each outfitted with individual electricity submeters, which should allow for a true implementation of green leases across the board. The building is located less than a half mile from the direct New Jersey Transit train to Midtown and will offer tenants access to bicycle racks and changing rooms. Other green core and shell features include high-performance glass, insulation, and HVAC systems, as well as building-integrated photovoltaics (supplying up to 20 percent of the development's power) and native landscaping. Renée Realty serves as the project's leasing agent.

Under LEED for New Construction and Major Renovations (“LEED-NC”), project teams can earn two points for diverting up to 75 percent of construction and demolition debris from disposal in landfills or incinerators. A project in downtown Buffalo, New York is taking LEED’s Materials & Resources credit category quite seriously and expects to collect close to 7,200 tons of demolition material during the $68 million rehabilitation of what was once the Thaddeus J. Dulski Federal Office Building into the mixed-use 200 Delaware Avenue. Designed by architects Pfohl, Roberts and Biggie, the project team is slowly razing the existing 15-story building that dates from the 1970s and sorting each component of the structure, from its pipes and wires to light fixtures.