PlaNYC 2030

At last week's annual AIANY's Heritage Ball at Chelsea Piers, the New York City Department of Buildings and AIANY announced three finalists in the urbanSHED International Design Competition. As you may recall, the competition, which is also being sponsored by the New York Building Congress, among others, seeks to create a new standard of sidewalk shed design that both improves the pedestrian experience and simultaneously incorporates sustainable design principles that comport with PlaNYC and New York City safety standards. The competition received 164 designs from across the world; the three finalists are: “urbanCLOUD" by New York City-based KNEStudio, "Urban Umbrella" by Young Hwan Choi of the University of Pennsylvania, and "Tripod" of Brookline, Massachusetts' XChange Architects.

Last week, the AIA's New York chapter and the Department of Buildings launched an international design competition that will seek to redesign the concept of the urban construction shed around sustainable design principles. The competition's goal is to create "a fresh, new sidewalk shed design that’s sustainable, economical, meets or exceeds current safety requirements and City regulations, improves technical and structural performance – and creates a better environment for the people who live in, work in and visit New York City." As you likely know, sidewalk sheds are required over public spaces to protect pedestrians from overhead construction activity; currently, there are more than 6000 sidewalk sheds installed and in use in the city that span over 1 million linear feet. The competition site is 280 Broadway, the landmarked 7-story building between Chambers and Reade Streets just north of City Hall that's currently home to DOB; the Italianate tower was once home to the original New York Sun newspaper and the A.T. Stewart Store- New York City's first department store.

• Construction on the High Line is progressing; section between Gansevoort and 20th Street still scheduled to open by close of 2008.
• City Room examines how government and citizens can promote smart growth along the Hudson River
• First-ever America-Israel Green Buildings Conference held in New Jersey Meadowlands.
• Manhattan office vacancy rate on the rise to 6.9 percent in May from 5.3 percent at start of year; Midtown Class A rate at 7.1 percent with space at Bank of America Tower coming on line.
• Mayor Bloomberg announces creation of office to expedite redevelopment of local brownfields as contemplated by PlaNYC.
• Port Authority
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Just in time for the holidays, and as a nice complement to the efficient LED lights that will grace this year’s Christmas tree, Tishman Speyer has installed 363 solar panels on the roof of 45 Rockefeller Plaza. Last week, at the same press conference announcing both of these initiatives, Tishman, which has owned the complex since 2000, also announced that it’s in the process of installing an ice storage plant to provide air conditioning for the entire Rockefeller Center, as well as an 18,000-square-foot green roof on top of Radio City Music Hall. The 70kW solar panel installation is now the largest privately-owned source of solar power generation in Manhattan, and the ice plant will produce ice overnight from forty-seven tanks powered by Tishman-purchased wind energy.

At a press conference, Mayor Bloomberg praised Tishman’s initiatives, noting that “[w]hen we developed PlaNYC, we hoped that public leadership would inspire private-sector creativity and investment in a greener, greater New York and I want to commend [Tishman Speyer] for stepping up and meeting that challenge.” Tishman’s green efforts aren’t just limited to its work at Rockefeller Center; it also served as the development manager at LEED Gold Court Square Two in Long Island City and has over four million square feet of office space under development in the U.S. for which it intends to seek LEED certification.