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July 6, 2006 - Smells Like Green Spirit
July 6, 2006 -- GITA NANDAN, a Brooklyn-based architect and designer, is a model of harmony. She teaches a class at CUNY and is president of GreenHomeNYC, a nonprofit that promotes eco-friendly homes. By all accounts she's likeable and good-hearted. But, nevertheless, Nandan is smack in the middle of "a race for time."
"We're competing with another architecture firm that's literally [working on a building] around the corner."
Are they competing over air rights? Sight lines? Customers?
None of the above.
Whoever finishes first will have erected the first environmentally friendly building of its size in Williamsburg.
Nandan's building, The Devoe, is a seven-unit, five-story condo slated to be finished in spring 2007. When it's completed, the 5,500-square-foot building at 233 Devoe St. will have a green roof (a planted garden that acts as a natural way to cool the building), a water-retention system and geothermal heating and cooling. The Devoe is up against Greenbuilt, an eight-unit condo scheduled to open in February 2007. It's a race that would melt Al Gore's heart.
While it would be a stretch to say that eco-friendly apartments are flooding the market, they are without a doubt becoming more prominent, moving from large complexes like The Helena and The Solaire to smaller boutique buildings. There are even residents in older co-op or condos who are turning their units green on their own.
Part of the impetus for the eco-friendly trend is coming from the city. Come Jan. 1, 2007, New York City will require that all buildings that receive at least $2 million in city funds must have certification from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), the U.S. Green Building Council's standard for an environmentally friendly building. Many environmental designers think that this will filter down to smaller buildings.
"Within five years, I think this will be part of the building code," says Michael Deane, the director of operations for Sustainable Construction, an eco-friendly development company.
"We're really clearly at a tipping point when there are groups meeting all over the city focused on energy stability," says Leslie Hoffman, the executive director of the nonprofit Earth Pledge.
Last month Chris Benedict, a designer who specializes in building insulation, hosted a talk, slide show and tour of 227 E. Third St., the site of one of her most recent projects. Benedict put out three chairs for the slideshow - more than two dozen people showed up.
The crowd consisted of developers, architects, designers and environmentalists. When Benedict and her colleague Henry Gifford showed a slide showing how much energy her boilers save - it uses only 16 percent of the BTUs that a normal system uses - one member of the audience whistled as if a scantily clad Naomi Watts had just waltzed into the room.
And while being green isn't quite that sexy, the trend has attracted a fair number of fans.
Take Habana Outpost, a Cuban restaurant in Fort Greene. Its kitchen was constructed out of an old van; the tables are made from recycled aluminum; on the roof are solar and wind panels, and the lights, break cables and fiber optics are all eco-friendly. There's a rental apartment upstairs that shares the building's green features.
Les Bluestone, a partner at Blue Sea Development Company, has been designing eco-friendly affordable housing for years in Brooklyn and The Bronx. Considering that so many of Bluestone's projects are city funded, it raises the question of why we're not seeing solar panels and bamboo floors in mid-priced buildings.
"On the market-rate stuff, it should be a slam dunk," he says. However, Bluestone admits that making a house entirely green is not cheap. ("To do green-sustainable does cost more, and that's just simple economics," Bluestone says.)
"I would say that typically it runs 10 percent to 15 percent more" in terms of costs, says architect Greg Merryweather, who is designing Greenbuilt. However, Merryweather adds, the prices for eco-friendly materials are dropping rapidly.
"There's so much more available," says Merryweather. "Bamboo is the same price as oak ... and a lot of Energy Star appliances are very competitive in price."
And there's a healthy chance one could make it back later by cutting down on, say, heating bills.
Elaine Hansen is banking on it.
Hansen bought a former iron-works factory in Jersey City in 2002 for $150,000 and decided to convert half of the property into residential lofts if she could heat them affordably. But finding a contractor willing to put one of Benedict's heating plans into use was a nightmare.
After going through a roster of disagreeable contractors, she finally found Anthony Krueger.
"If it were me," says Krueger, showing off the new network of pipes that will heat all the apartments, "I wouldn't have put in all this extra stuff."
Does that mean it won't work?
"Oh, it'll work! Absolutely!"
As Hansen led NYP Home into the rental units, she whispered, "He was the only one who would do it. He was by far the best."
Indeed, the biggest thing keeping buildings from going green might be the extra effort involved.
"The whole process for us was so uncharted," says Susan Boyle, who, with her husband, Benton Brown, bought a 19th-century brewery in Crown Heights that they turned into green rentals.
David Schleifer has taken it upon himself to bring the green revolution into his co-op.
When Schleifer decided to renovate a year ago, he went green. He called Nandan, who installed bamboo floors (bamboo can be replenished much faster than other kinds of wood), recycled tiles in his bathroom, energy-efficient appliances, non-toxic finishes and fluorescent lights, which use far less energy than normal ones.
"I've always been concerned with ecology," says Schleifer, a Ph.D. candidate at NYU. "I buy all organic foods ... I don't drink bottled water that flew 3,000 miles to get to me. So it was just a natural process of my purchasing decisions."
Schleifer put his things in storage and moved in with his boyfriend while the renovation was underway.
"But," he says, "I think it might pay off - it seems to be paying off."
In fact, Schleifer is selling his place. It's in contract for a price that more than covers the renovation.
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Publication: New York Post - reported on USGBC Website
