sustainable design

Boston-based Anna Beha Architects ("ABA") has designed a renovation and expansion of Princeton University's Carl A. Fields Center for Equality and Cultural Understanding, whose building dates from 1901 and was formerly one of the school's eating clubs. The project recently broke ground and contemplates a 5080-square-foot addition to the original, Italianate-style base building, which will house 18,8000 square feet of programming, office, and classroom space. The architect's challenge was to reclaim the building's original design, which it discovered through researching the university's archives had been buried by a series of poorly executed previous renvovations. ABA was charged with creating useable outdoor space, as well as visible entry points into the structure, which it accomplished by emphasizing the building's original hipped roof and overhanging cornice. The Center is located at 58 Prospect Avenue and, upon completion next summer, will feature upgraded HVAC, electrical, and fire safety systems.

Intervale Green is a $45 million, 127-unit affordable housing development under construction in the Morrisania section of the Bronx. The project should open up sometime this fall and is accepting applications through August 3 (see link below). Project sponsor Women's Housing & Economic Development Corporation teamed with energy consultant Steven Winter Associates to reduce the building's expected energy costs by 35 percent through numerous sustainable design elements, including the installation of EnergyStar appliances and light fixtures.

HOK’s New York office recently released its design for a five-story, 55,000-square-foot commercial office building in the Songdo International Business District (“IBD”) in Incheon, South Korea (online renderings of the tower do not appear available yet). Developed by Gale International in collaboration with POSCO E&C, the Gale International/U-Life Northeast Asia Headquarters Building will aim for the country’s first LEED Platinum rating. The master plan for the Songdo District was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox and is a LEED for Neighborhood Development (“LEED-ND”) Pilot Project. Scheduled to open in the fall of 2009, the 1,500 IBD is adjacent to the Yellow Sea and sits upon reclaimed land. HOK is designing seven towers in Songdo, one of which is a 322-room, 25-story hotel that’s already under construction on the south side of the IBD and is seeking South Korea’s first LEED-certified rating.

HOK’s Headquarters Building will include a number of sustainable design elements in pursuit of its Platinum rating, ranging from rooftop wind turbines, a graywater system, and green roofs, to real-time analysis of building energy and water use.

Coordination. Integration. Beyond the bells and whistles of sexy, but expensive, green design features such as green roofs or geothermal heating and cooling systems, sustainable construction is about a truly collaborative effort between owners, designers, and contractors. While the former are certainly more likely to earn a project on the local paper’s front page, educated project teams that have green experience are an imperative in executing a successful green project.

Fortunately, an increasing number of A/E/C firms are earning their green stripes, both by repeatedly participating on multiple green projects with similar stakeholders, as well as providing their staff with sustainable education through certification programs. For example, 42,000 A/E/C professionals have now earned USGBC’s LEED Accredited Professional designation, up from 25,000 at the close of 2006. Back in July, BD+C ranked the top 50 A/E/C firms by number of LEED-APs, compiling its list from the 348 largest firms in the country. While we’d be the first to agree that statistics only tell part of the story, the following five firms topped BD+C’s list; you’ll recognize several names from a number of posts here at gbNYC.

By Number #1: Perkins+Will (753 of 1,236 total staff) #2: Gensler (575 of 2,480) #3: HOK (456 of 2,153) #4: Stantec (277 of 5,977) #5: Turner (260 of N/A) By Percentage