Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

As the Commercial Observer reported 4/20/21,  New York City’s Building Emissions Law Awaits Next Mayor’s Muscle , a law passed in 2019 will eventually have some consequences: Under the rule, Mayor de Blasio’s administration has targeted buildings of at least 25,000 square feet with carbon caps beginning in 2024. Building owners will have to pay $268 for each metric ton their site’s carbon footprint exceeds the limit each year. The key to lowering emissions will be how quickly owners can electrify their buildings to provide heat and hot water. That could involve changing steam radiators over time to electric heat pumps that plug into a grid. That seemingly relates mainly to older buildings, as architect and political candidate Lou Céspedes recently wrote , and tweeted, suggesting it could lead to a stall in repairs and then renovation-caused evictions.  At 550 Vanderbilt, a low rating But, as Barbara Rogers responded, the 550 Vanderbilt condo has a notably low energy efficiency...

According to the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park 2009 Modified General Project Plan from Empire State Development, "All of the Project buildings will be 'green' buildings, meeting, at a minimum, LEED certification, which is the recognized standard for measuring environmental sustainability of new buildings."  That refers to  LEED ( Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification , the "most widely used green building rating system in the world," issued by the U.S. Green Building Council. According to a  project fact sheet , all the buildings are "Designed and/or expected to gain LEED Silver." That's the second highest level. As the USGBC states , "Based on the number of points achieved, a project then earns one of four LEED rating levels: Certified, Silver, Gold or Platinum." ("The federal government now  requires LEED Gold  for every new building it constructs," according to CityLab.) As I  wrote , LEED ba...

I wrote recently about the unintended consequences of the smoking ban at the 535 Carlton residential tower in Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, with resident smokers going out on the sidewalk and even across the street.  Housing Connect notice for 535 Carlton According to city housing lottery notices, smoke-free buildings include 461 Dean ,  535 Carlton , and 38 Sixth . The latter two are "100% affordable," while 461 Dean is 50% below-market. It's a little fuzzier at the condo building 550 Vanderbilt. This rental  listing  says it's smoke-free, but the Seventh Amendment to the Offering Plan for the 550 Vanderbilt condominium allows for smoking inside apartments: SMOKING AND ODORS 18.1. No cigarette, cigar, or pipe smoking is permitted in any of the public areas including but not limited to: stairways, hallways, roof deck, basement and elevators. Anyone entering the building or leaving a unit must extinguish all cigarettes, cigars and pipes. 18.2. ...

Crain's reports that Barclays Center takes the LEED : Last month, the 18,000-seat building received a silver LEED [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design] rating in recognition of eco-friendly features, from the Cor-Ten steel framework shading its sides to the low-flow bathroom fixtures that help save 2 million gallons of water a year. Another green feature: 91% of all the wood in the building—including the Nets' basketball court—is certified sustainable. Barclays is one of just a handful of arenas in the nation to achieve the coveted LEED status... There are other features , as well, including a focus on public transit. But, as I wrote , shouldn't there be LEED points subtracted for having a surface parking lot last not the initially predicted three years, but much longer? But remember that a good number of buildings, including some recently renovated ones, were demolished for the arena and associated parking lot, and there's significant skepticism abou...

According to the latest Site Observation Report by Merritt & Harris, the real estate consultant to the arena PILOT Bond Trustee, dated 3/3/11 and based on a visit 1/31/11, the builders of the Barclays Center are trying to gain LEED ( Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design ) certification: The arena is pursuing a LEED certification as its guide map to sustainability. Subsequent to our previous review, the project has added 1 additional point that was previously being reviewed to its "likely attainable list" and determined that another point being reviewed would not be sought. Thus, the revised scorecard now includes 34 points that it considers to be likely achievable and 6 other points as possible. Of the possible points, 1 is pending a design decision and the other 5 are pending bidding/construction performance. A Silver rating would require 33 - 38 points, based on LEED NC v2.2, which the project was filed under. It is noted that a gold rating would re...

From a October 2008 Atlantic Yards brochure from Forest City Ratner: Every building in Atlantic Yards will achieve LEED certification, with a goal of Silver. From the Empire State Development Corporation's June 2009 Modified General Project Plan : the Project aims, through this comprehensive and cohesive plan, to provide for the following public uses and purposes... sustainability and green design through the application of comprehensive sustainable design goals that make efficient use of energy, building materials and water From the Barclays Center Arena Preliminary Official Statement (prepared by Goldman Sachs) and released this week: The green building fee is a $1.00 per ticket surcharge added to all tickets to help defray the cost of the Arena’s LEED certification. ArenaCo will receive all green building fees, regardless of whether they are attached to Nets or other event tickets.

In the realm of Atlantic Yards, it's a relatively small fib (or lingering error), but it's still worth noticing. The latest Forest City Ratner promotional brochure claims: Atlantic Yards also has been selected as part of LEED's [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design] Neighborhood Development Pilot Program, which encourages compact development, proximity to transit, access to public spaces, mixed use, affordable housing, and pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly design. (Emphasis added) I wondered how exactly AY had been "selected," given the prospect for some neighborhood-unfriendly features like indefinite interim surface parking , given that AY open space isn't due until Phase 2 (which has no starting point), given that expected shadows nixed planned solar panels on a nearby building , and given that Phase 2 would include most of the affordable housing. Registered, not selected It wasn't selected. A look at the U.S. Green Building Council's (USG...

The March issue of Metropolis magazine had three essays, under the rubric Local Flavors, that resonate with issues raised by Atlantic Yards and waterfront developme nt. Collectively, they suggest a concern with infrastructure, preservation, and sustainable building that hasn't yet acquired criticial mass. Kotkin on infrastructure Joel Kotkin's Back to Basics: Manufacturing is still more relevant to long-term economic development than glitzy museums or massive sports stadiums , notes: Over the past decade many city leaders have gravitated toward what might be called an arts-and-culture-led strategy. Even though most cities—including ballyhooed places such as San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and Boston—have achieved mediocre (or even negative) job growth and continue to lose middle-class families, they’ve celebrated reviv­als of their urban cores based on the migration of largely affluent “hip” residents. Much of this misplaced focus on culture is related to the decline of blu...

So it's not just critics with hindsight who think LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, which aims to produce "green buildings" by assigning points scants the value of preserving existing buildings such as the Ward Bakery and their "embodied energy," the energy that went into building materials and construction. ( Photo by Tracy Collins ) It's a developer of LEED himself. "I happened to be on a retreat with a founder of LEED," commented planner John Shapiro at the annual conference of the Historic Districts Council last Saturday. The founder, Shapiro said, explained that a committee of the U.S. Green Buildings Council "intentionally downplayed historic preservation, because if they put it in the formula [for LEED] , it would blow everything away and architects would ignore it." (He later identified the speaker as architect Bill Reed, an early committee member .) Had the cost and value of embodied energy b...

From the Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn newsletter: The Historic Districts Council (HDC) will be awarding Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn their Grassroots Preservation Award for our "ongoing efforts to stop the Atlantic Yards project." There will be a ceremony in May. We thank the HDC for acknowledging and honoring our ongoing work. HDC gives several Grassroots Preservation Awards, often to groups that, unlike DDDB, have succeeded in their preservation mission. Last year's winners included the Broadway-Flushing Homeowners Association, the Crown Heights North Association, the East Village Community Coalition, and the Sunnyside Gardens Preservation Alliance, all of which had achieved preservation progress. DDDB and allies have succeeded in raising consciousness about valuable buildings within the Atlantic Yards footprint and the general importance of responsible development, but it has not succeeded in blocking the ongoing demolition of the Ward Bakery , though F...