Water from the parking areas will flow through a hydraulic oil separation system with bioretention cells. Then march grasses and other natural plants planted along the stream will further filter water from the site and other properties before it flows to Flushing Bay.

“It’s a gift to have an open body of water traveling through the site,” says Patricia Zander, STV Group LEED and environmental project manager for the police academy project. “It will attract wildlife and become an important habitat. They are enhancing it so it becomes a meaningful feature.”

The building will have showers, bicycle spaces, reserved parking for fuel-efficient vehicles, lighting and energy conservation systems, low-flow plumbing fixtures, and a central energy plant with variable speed chillers and pumps. STV/Turner will recycle at least 75% of the construction waste and monitor indoor air quality during construction.

“It’s what we do now,” says Murray about the recycling. “Turner has a policy of recycling on every project, so it’s second nature.”

Zander says the building will use 50% less water and enjoy a 14% energy cost reduction. Thirty-five percent of the electricity will come from renewable resources.

“A lot of what we are able to do is because of the mayor’s push,” Zander says. “DDC is serious and committed and wants to be in line with what the mayor wants. They are looking at infrastructure and transportation. They are thinking big picture.”

The design and construction team is using Building Information Modeling (BIM) to give the owner an ability to virtually walk through the new academy.

“Light harvesting, exterior view, and daylight exposure related to lighting control and HVAC study models are being modeled from this information as well as the construction team developing sequencing and logistics and cost information forged from the designers models,” Murray says.

The first phase is scheduled for completion in 2013. Phase two will include a parking garage, emergency vehicle obstacle course, streetscapes for training, a shooting range, an extended-stay hotel, and a dining and conference center.

Staten Island Animal Care Center

The 5,000-sq-ft Staten Island Animal Care Center will break ground this spring and seeks LEED-Silver certification. Garrison—Architects of Brooklyn designed the building using a thermal modeling process, focusing on conservation of energy.

“We made a passive bioclimatic design,” says Jim Garrison, founder of Garrison—Architects. “The sun heats the building in the winter.”

The exterior features highly insulating, translucent multicell polycarbonate walls, which allow daylight into the building, and with mullions at only the top and bottom of the panel, it reduces the thermal transfer to almost nothing, says Garrison, calling it four to five times as insulating as glass.

A clearstory between the lower and higher perimeter roof provides additional daylight. Garrison inverted the typical shelter style, placing the animal holding areas on the perimeter and offices on the interior, allowing the animals to enjoy the daylight and creating an animated fa�ade that engages people walking by. At night the building will glow.

Being an animal care center, the facility required 100% fresh air, so to conserve energy, Garrison used a heat recovery system to pull heat from the exhausted air and give it to the incoming air, making the system 85% efficient. Plus Group of New York provided mechanical engineering. The building is scheduled for completion in 2011.

Museum of the City of New York

Ennead Architects of New York designed the Museum of the City of New York reconstruction project. C & L Contracting of Staten Island is the general contractor, and Hill International of Marlton, N.J., serves as construction manager. The $21.2 million first phase finished in 2008, and work is progressing on the $24.5 million phase two, renovation of the South Wing and the top two floors of the central connector. It will create new administration offices, classroom space, galleries, a gift shop and patron amenities.