Brooklyn's Progress
January 2003

By Kendall Christiansen

Green buildings.  Sustainable design.  High-performance buildings.  High-falutin' rhetoric that more often than not meant higher costs, unrealized savings, lack of comfort, and so much hype.

Until recently, that is.  What once were buzzwords with uncertain meaning are standard terminology in the development field - including architects, interior designers, and even developers, construction managers, and project financiers.  Articles in design and construction trade journals proclaim the new gospel, offering tips for re-thinking old designs, methods and products.

What caused the switch?  Several factors, including greater understanding of the practical applications and benefits of sustainable design, informed by actual results of real projects - and improved availability (both price and logistics) of new products.  And sustained leadership.

In New York, 4 Times Square showed Manhattan's development community what a "green" commercial building could be, with its array of environmentally sensitive systems, materials and performance attributes.  In lower Manhattan, New York's first "green" high-rise residential building is mid-way through construction, pushed by aggressive new design guidelines of the Battery Park City Authority.  The acclaimed "high performance building" standards of the Department of Design and Construction (DDC) are beginning to make an impact in the City's own buildings.

Closer to home, two buildings in Brooklyn illustrate the growing trend:  the expansion of the Brooklyn Children's Museum (BCM), a $39 million initiative that will lead to designation as the nation's first "green" children's museum by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Program (LEED, the nation's top green building certification system).  Since Brooklyn launched the world's children's museum movement over one hundred years ago, this "first" would only be appropriate.

BCM's plans, developed in conjunction with DDC, include a variety of systems and products that will improve the building's energy efficiency and performance, including using geothermal wells to heat and cool the building, photovoltaic panels to generate electricity, state-of-the-art windows, and computer-sensors to control interior lighting and temperature.  In exchange for the modest investment, operating savings are estimated at over $100,000 annually.  BCM also intends to install environmentally friendly interior finishes, including bamboo flooring (ultra hard, and renewable), and carpeting made with recycled content.

"One of the Museum's core values for its young visitors is respect for the environment," said Carol Enseki, BCM's President.  "Because we want our new building to both incorporate and teach about what it now means to be 'green', the Museum plans educational exhibits that will highlight these conscious choices about design, systems and products."  On a smaller scale, the recently completed Maple Street School - the first pre-school located at a subway station complex, honored with a 2002 Brooklyn Building Award - arguably is the city's first "green" child care facility.  In a modest, 2,800 square foot space, four skylights provide natural light, cellulose insulation fills the walls and ceilings, low-VOC paint covers the walls, and recycled-content flooring products (including cork) are used throughout.  Even Habitat for Humanity's new homes in Bedford-Stuyvesant will be EnergyStar-designated by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).

Although it can mean many different things, all it takes today to build "green" is a willingness to be aggressive as a project's "owner", and the capacity to see the bigger picture - of decisions today paying off tomorrow.

An active member of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, Kendall Christiansen is a Trustee of the Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment, and co-chairs the Citywide Recycling Advisory Board.