Following Governor Cuomo’s creation of 10 Regional Economic Development Councils in July last year, the newly created New York City Economic Development Council developed a plan to stimulate economic development and job growth in the region. On December 8, state agencies announced the funding awards that will put the plan into action, and New York City received over $66 million.

Many of the projects that received funding in New York City and around the state will reduce electricity use and promote sustainability. We are pleased to announce that Solar One received $229,000 for its Solar 2 project. The funding will go toward installing a green roof on Solar 2, a new energy positive and net-zero water use environmental learning center that will replace Solar 1 in Stuyvesant Cove Park.

WATER (or the secret life of objects) seeks to explore human relationships to the environment through the science fiction tale of a world-altering flood of biblical proportions. Taking place in three parts, in locations and languages from all over the world, WATER introduces us to characters before, during, and after cataclysmic environmental change–from an oblivious Norwegian couple aboard a yacht, to a young girl in Malaysia burying her father at sea, to a scientist who must sell her technology to purify the remaining potable water to the highest bidder. At turns haunting, hilarious, and provocative, WATER explores how we as a global community overcome environmental and personal tragedy, surrender to it, or exist in the spaces between.

Initiated and led by director Daniella Topol and playwright Sheila Callaghan, WATER is being devised by a creative team comprised of Katie Down (sound), Leah Gelpe (video and projections), Mimi Lien (set), and Tyler Micoleau (lights).

Featured Workshop in Epic Theatre Ensemble’s Sunshine Series 2011, Produced by Vicious Bear Productions in association with Epic, Solar One, and the 14^th Street Y.

WATER (or the secret life of objects)
July 7, 8, 9 at 7:30pm
The Theater at the 14th Street Y
344 East 14th Street, between 1st and 2nd Avenues

Admission is FREE.

Seating is extremely limited. Reservations are required. For reservations and information, visit EpicTheatreEnsemble.org

The first grant comes from the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC) through their Green Innovation Grant Program (GIGP). The EFC is a public benefit corporation providing low-cost capital and expert technical assistance for environmental projects in New York State while promoting innovative environmental technologies. The GIGP program is a competitive process that contributes “seed money for projects which spur green innovation, build green capacity, and facilitate technology transfer throughout the State.”

Solar 2 will receive a grant of $712,500 through the GIGP that will help to pay for many of the water conservation, treatment and re-use technologies that will be found in Solar 2.  Among these features are a rainwater collection system, a rainwater garden and wetland, a roof garden, on-site biological wastewater treatment, a vertically-integrated greenhouse, waterless urinals and low-flush toilets and more.  Taken together, these technologies will work toward our goal of net-zero water use in Solar 2 and will be unlike any other systems in use in public buildings in New York City.

The second grant comes from the J.C. Kellogg Foundation in the amount of $375,000.  This money will help us complete the final design processes needed to begin bidding and construction and will also contribute to the actual construction of the building. This grant fills an immediate need and will help us keep the project moving forward while we work to secure the remaining funds to cover the full cost of construction.

This support adds to the growing list of funders supporting the development and construction of Solar 2, including Mayor Bloomberg/PlaNYC, the New York City Council, the Manhattan Borough President, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction, the New York State Assembly/New York Dormitory Authority, the Schmidt Family Foundation, ConEdison, the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, the Geoff and Sara Gund Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts.  We are pursuing a number of other funding and sponsorship options as well and hope to have even more good news to report very soon.

If you or your organization are interested in funding Solar 2 or learning about sponsorship opportunities, please contact our Executive Director Chris Collins at chris@solar1.org or by calling 212.505.6050. For more information on the project check out the Solar 2 page and the project page of our architects, Kiss + Cathcart.

You can also check out an article in the NY Observer about Solar One, Solar 2 and the Platt sisters HERE. It’s official: Chris Collins is dapper!

You can read the interview here.

Interview with Christopher J. Collins, Gold winner of the 2008 Holcim Awards North America. Chris Collins, Executive Director, won the Holcim Awards Gold 2008 for his project: Solar 2 Green Energy  Arts and Education Center, New York, USA

Solar One is extremely proud to announce that we have been awarded the prestigious Holcim Gold 2008 North America Award (pictured) for Solar 2, the net-zero energy use building that will be constructed on the Solar One blacktop starting in 2009. Along with the trophy, there is a $100K prize. Projects with a high expectation of completion are especially valued in the competition, and Solar 2 was praised as “bringing the eco-building vision into reality”.

The awards are given by the Swiss-based Holcim Foundation to projects in  5 regions of the world. The top projects are automatically selected for the Holcim International Award, with the winner to be announced in Lucerne, Switzerland in May 2009. The winner of the International Gold Award is also awarded a cash prize of $650K.

Solar One Executive Director Chris Collins accepted the award Thursday night in Montreal, along with architect Colin Cathcart of Kiss+Cathcart and Nigel Nicholls of engineering firm Arup, thanking the Holcim Foundation for their support of the Solar 2 project. “We are excited to have received this prestigious international award,” said Chris Collins. “It recognizes the need for a building like Solar 2, particularly in NYC, where buildings account for 79% of CO₂ emissions.”

October 2007

A Growing Number of Projects Focus Attention On An Elusive Goal

By Molly Miller

Buildings are responsible for nearly half of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions and consume more than 70 percent of the electricity generated by U.S. power plants, according to the Energy Information Administration. These numbers have become more and more widely cited in the press and are the mantra of Santa Fe-based architect Edward Mazria, who has long spoken out on the link between buildings and global warming. In 2002, Mazria founded Architecture 2030, a non-profit organization with the mission of dramatically reducing the building sector’s greenhouse gas emissions. In late 2005, the group issued the 2030 Challenge, calling for an immediate 50 percent reduction in fossil fuel use in new buildings and for climate-neutral buildings by 2030. (full article)

April 28, 2007

SOLAR FLAIR: The futuristic “zero-carbon” center will open in 2009.

Eco-Friendly Center A City Groundbreaker

By Sharri Markson

Construction of the first building in the nation to leave a “zero carbon footprint” will begin next year on the East Side.

The eco-friendly center will be open to the public with interactive environmental exhibits, a cafe, bookstore and green theater, showing films powered by the sun. Construction is slated to begin in September 2008 and will open a year later.

Costing $12 million, including $4.2 million from the city, the 2-story building on the East River at 23rd Street will have 22 geothermal wells that sink roughly 1500 feet underground to regulate temperature.

The building will also have a “living wall” with vines to cool the building in summer and allow light to filter through during winter, feature solar panels and use water from the East River.

Mayor Bloomberg’s “Sustainability Director” Rohit Aggarwala said he hoped some high-rise building’s would adopt the energy-saving techniques in the future.

“It will be a very advanced building,” he said. “It is a test bed to demonstrate how some of these technologies work in a very urbanized setting.”

The center, called Solar 2, will replace a smaller solar-powered center called Solar 1, operated by the not-for-profit company Solar One.

The new site will sell more power to Con Ed than it buys, Solar One officials said.

“It is the first of its kind in the country,” Solar One executive director Chris Collins said. “It will be a fully functioning building and a cafe. It will be a showcase of the kinds of things that are available for builders and architects and designers to use in businesses and homes.”

The building will show how residents can make a typical New York studio apartment eco-friendly with biodegradable floors, compact fluorescent light bulbs and other energy-saving appliances.

“It will show you what you can do in your own apartment,” Collins said.

Other energy-saving techniques include using water from the East River to provide cooling and natural waste composting. In addition, school children and college students will be able to visit the center to study energy-saving measures.

Bloomberg dedicated $3 million in his budget plan Thursday. The City Council has also backed about $1 million for the project , which will also receive state and other grants.

November 17, 2006

Until recently, sustainable architecture had suffered a serious image problem. Overshadowed by Southwestern earthdomes, sod-roofed shacks and other granola-flavored efforts, and further hindered by the clumsy contemporary work of some of the movement’s leading protagonists, ecological architecture is still far away from being regarded as simply a sub-set (or super-set) of outstanding design. Elsewhere in the world, this perception is changing; for example, many of the works of Norman Foster and Renzo Piano are being admired as architectural achievements whose designs are inextricable from their environmental rewards. Here are a few buildings in New York that are laudable for integrating high performance and handsome design. CHL

One Bryant Park

42nd street & 6th Ave

Client(s): Durst Organization and Bank of America

Architect: Cook & Fox Architects

Completion: 2008

Both of the leading protagonists in this project- the Durst Organization and Cook + Fox- have committed fully to the cause of advancing sustainability standards in architecture. Robert Fox (formerly of Fox & Fowle Architects) worked previously with Douglas Durst on 4 Times Square. With One Bryant Park, the team hopes to achieve what has not yet been done: a LEED Platinum rating for a commercial highrise. The crystalline tower’s faceted profile allows sunlight to reach the street and to penetrate the building from different angles. Its standout feature is a cogeneration plant, which will provide 67% of the building’s total power consumption. Taking into account the vast amount of electricity that is lost in the course of transmission, the on-site plant will be 300% more efficient than tapping into a traditional power grid. The building also has a graywater treatment plant and storage tanks for rainwater (no stormwater will be discharged into the city’s sewage system), which will be used to irrigate plants and flush toilets. The building also features waterless urinals, which will conserve about 3 million gallons of water per year. The building is the first in New York to fully feature underfloor access for air ventilation, electrical outlets and communication lines (the New York Times building also has this feature, but only for the newspaper’s floors).

The project has also converted its primary tenant, Bank of America, to sign on to the environmental cause. The ciompany is now launching an effort to green all of its bank branches, and has launched a program to offer cash rebates to their employees nationwide who purchase hybrid cars.

Stuyvesant Cove Environmental Center

23rd Street & the East River

Client: Community Environmental Center

Architect: Kiss + Cathcart, Architects

Completion: 2008

Kiss + Cathcart couldn’t design an eco-unfriendly building if they tried. Designer of the Stillwell Avenue Terminal train shed and consultant on the photovoltaic system for 4 Times Square, the firm is now working on several projects which all advance solutions for how to build sustainably in New York City, including a 12-floor residence on Pitt Street for Common Ground, and a maintenance facility for the NYC Department of Environmental Protection (a DDC project). In 2003, the architects built Solar 1, a temporary solar-powered classroom in Stuyvesant Cove Park administered by the non-profit Community Environmental Center (CEC) for the NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC). Solar 1 will be replaced by Solar 2, a more elaborate and [permanent center which aims to be “the hub of environmental activity in the city.” The 8,000-square-foot building will be a teaching tool in itself: Perhaps the first building in the Northeast to achieve net zero water and energy impact, the building will demonstrate high-tech and traditional environmental strategies alike. An exterior vegetative screen provides passive cooling and shade. A sawtooth roof will sport PV panels and clerestory windows to allow natural daylighting. The lobby will house a living machine, which will collect and treat rainwater for toilets and irrigation. The project will also have composting toilets, whose byproduct will be used to fertilize the surrounding park. “There will be a lot of schoolkids, so the project has a lot of toilets,” conceded Cathcart.

Site 3

Battery Park City

Client: Albanese Organization

Architect: Pelli Clarke Pelli

Completion: 2008

Predating LEED by more than a decade, the environmentally minded design guidelines developed by the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) have generated a collection of high-performance green buildings that has attracted eco-conscious inhabitants and developers alike. The drawback of the guidelines has been their stringent nature: Progressive projects such as the Solaire by Rafael Pelli for the Albanese Organization (completed in 2003) and their latest collaboration, the Verdesian (which finished last summer), as well as the Riverhouse (2007), developed by the Sheldrake Organization and designed by the Polshek Partnership (with interiors by David Rockwell), all have that distinct Battery Park City massing and material vocabulary. Pelli’s latest effort, commissioned by Albanese, is an as-yet unnamed project known for now as Site 3, just now breaking ground. Located in Battery Park City’s southernmost corner, the project was less constrained by its site and fell under different guidelines. The building features more glazing than the Solaris and Verdesian; Pelli specified the same high-performance glass that is used on Richard Meier’s Perry Street tower. with each successive building, Pelli and his client have managed to refine their approach, in this case, meeting the BPCA’s high standards for indoor air quality while saving the energy cost associated with the need to exhaust air.

Site 3, like the Solaris and Verdesian, is being built by Turner Construction, which is developing a niche as an expert green builder. Nationwide, it has no less than 23 LEED Platinum projects under its belt.

September 2006

Thanks to the efforts of E-News subscribers, the AIA, and the sponsorship of mayors from the four corners of the U.S., Albuquerque, Chicago, Seattle and Miami, the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) formally adopted ‘The 2030 Challenge’ in June, 2006. U.S. mayors sent the clear message that local leaders are willing to take action on the important issues of climate change and energy independence. And they are taking action. Mayors from 17 Texas cities, including Austin, Dallas and Houston, have formed a group, Texas Cities for Clean Air Coalition, to prevent the construction of more than a dozen new coal fired power plants in the state. A grassroots movement is taking hold as the Challenge has now formally been adopted by the 78,000 member American Institute of Architects (AIA), the City of Santa Fe, the County of Sarasota and the Rocky Mountain Institute. Globally, the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) North America unanimously passed support for Architecture 2030 and embedded its targets in their “Statement of Action” that was passed at the ICLEI Congress in July, 2006. A more formal endorsement process will be brought forward in November at the annual meeting of the ICLEI Executive Committee, the governing council that represents all ICLEI member nations.

However, policy alone cannot bring about the changes necessary in the Building Sector to effectively address dangerous interference with our climate system: professional design education must also play a key role. It is critical that design schools educate their students so they are ready to meet this new reality in the workplace. In the coming months we will issue THE 2010 IMPERATIVE to all professional design schools around the world, asking them to implement specific strategies to achieve complete ecological literacy in design education by 2010. To encourage quick action in the educational community, we will follow the announcement with an interactive Global Emergency Design Teach-In. Stay tuned.

In this issue, we are highlighting a new project by architects Kiss+Cathcart to be built in New York. This project is designed to be not only carbon neutral, but to produce more energy than it consumes. It is but one of many examples of firms that are now incorporating carbon neutral design into their practices.

Solar 2 Educational Facility by Kiss+Cathcart Architects

Solar 2 is the new building project designed by Kiss+Cathcart Architects for New York environmental nonprofit Solar One, a project of the Community Environmental Center (CEC). This new and larger facility reflects the growing demand for Solar One’s environmental educational services. The building itself is a case study, weaving the natural and urban world into its programmed spaces and illustrating how natural systems can be used in urban buildings to reduce and eliminate fossil fuel energy use. Among its most striking features, the building incorporates a large ‘greenscreen’ to block unwanted eastern sunlight while serving as a physical reference to the building’s environmental design features, in fact creating a porous barrier within which the urban and natural environments are weaved.

Features incorporated into the building design to reduce fossil fuel energy consumption include:

Design:
-Natural ventilation: wind-induced and stack-driven ventilation.
-Roof monitors and windows for daylighting
-Greenscreen
-Recycled materials

Technology:
-85 kW array of PV’s: The array is estimated to generate 92,716 kWh per year, about 108% of the projected demand of 86,030 kWh per year.
-Low wattage fixtures
-50% efficient elevator
-Ground source heat pump

For more information on this building please visit:
Solar 1
Kiss + Cathcart Architects
CEC