Living Wall

Living Wall

14 Maple Avenue Features Country's Largest Biowall, Seeks New Jersey's Third LEED Platinum Rating

Mon

Jun

Developed jointly by the Morristown Parking Authority and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, 14 Maple Avenue in Morristown, New Jersey is on track to become New Jersey’s third LEED Platinum-certified building. We noted the the four-story, 40,000-square-foot project briefly here at gbNYC last fall and thought we’d check back in after it opened up just a couple of weeks ago. Designed by Lambertville, New Jersey-based Minno & Wasko Architects, the project applied for 11 credits under LEED’s Sustainable Sites category, 4 in Water Efficiency, 13 in Energy and Atmosphere, 6 in Materials and Resources, and 5 in Innovation and Design, including education programs for staff and tenants and a green cleaning program.

Rethinking the Urban Garden: Broadway Penthouse by Joel Sanders Architect

Wed

Apr

by Stephen Del Percio

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Joel Sanders Architect's Broadway Penthouse project offers a unique interpretation of the modern green design aesthetic. The project was completed last year for developer Matthew Blesso's 3200-square-foot penthouse loft in a 12-story NoHo building. Mr. Sanders' design concept was to, quite literally, "bring the outside in" and rethink the parameters of the urban garden, a notion which the architect explores in a course he teaches at Yale's architecture school about integrating nature into design.

The 3100-square-foot loft features a "planted core;" an interior wood staircase is surrounded by vegetation, which rises up through the interior living space and spills out onto a wood-decked roof terrace landscaped with various sedum and grasses. A living green wall graces the master bathroom, surrounds a wooden sink and mirror, and also extends up onto the roof. Natural daylight penetrates into the lower level of the loft through the core to further blur the distinction between outdoor and indoor spaces. The loft's floors are made from tajibo, a type of South American cork that is FSC-certified.

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.

Rochester Institute of Technology Earns LEED Gold for Applied Science Building

Fri

Oct

by Stephen Del Percio

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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 (enough to power 47 homes in New York State).