green living

Back in February of 2008, Brooklyn-based Manifold Architecture Studio incorporated a variety of green design features into the conversion of a 1600-square-foot triplex apartment unit in a former synagogue along East Seventh Street in the East Village. The project, which was executed for Dominique Camacho and her partner Gary Hirschkron, was profiled earlier this month in the New York Times and is definitely worth a closer look from a green construction perspective. The building itself was built back in 1908 and converted in the 1980s into five separate residences; the couple purchased the penthouse unit in 2007 for $1.5 million.

The Swede Hill House comes to us from Newport, Rhode Island-based design-builders Aquidneck Properties. Designed by architects Estes/Twombly, also of Newport, the 3000-square-foot home will be located on four protected acres of Block Island, which is just off the coast of Rhode Island and east of Montauk Point. The house is situated, as you might have guessed, on a hill that faces both south and west, providing spectacular ocean views back towards Montauk. The Swede Hill House is registered under the LEED for Homes program and will pursue a Silver level of certification from USGBC.

We're still tracking what's happening with the Sag Harbor-based firm's 132 North Main Street project, but in the meantime want to point you to Bates Masi + Architects' Re-Cover House, which will be featured in the April 2009 issue of Dwell magazine. The firm actually designed the house nearly 35 years ago as a Long Island vacation home in Amagansett but recently executed a renovation and addition for a new set of owners; the project earned a 2008 AIA Peconic Chapter Merit Award for Architecture/Renovations & Additions. In order to boost the house's square footage, its original south wall and deck were removed but cyprus wall boards and cedar wood decking therefrom were preserved and recycled into new siding, stair treads, scrim material, and risers. By preserving such materials, the firm was able not only to complete the project by using very few new materials, but also preserve the original design intent of the house across both the renovated interior walls and exterior cladding, which was almost completely constructed originally from twelve-inch wide cypruss clapboards.

We talk a lot here about how critical it is – both from a legal perspective and to ensure the ultimate delivery of a high-performance building – for a green building project team to coordinate its efforts as early as possible in the construction process, both in terms of defining green goals for the project, as well as minimizing the risk that design or other programming requirements are not accurately translated into the contract documents. Teddy Schiff, president of New York City-based Oyster Capital Group, clearly grasps these unique characteristics of sustainable design and spent nearly six months making sure his project team at 243 East 82nd Street understood exactly what would be required of it in order to execute architect Daniel Frisch's design for what should become Gotham's first single-family townhouse certified under USGBC's LEED for Homes ("LEED-H") rating system. Mr.