Related Links: First Impressions LEED Online In conjunction with the release of LEED v.3, USGBC transferred the certification of LEED professionals and building certification to the Green Building Certification Institute. The process for accrediting professionals has also changed. Now there are three tiers of LEED professionals; LEED Green Associates, LEED AP+ and LEED AP Fellow. “Prior LEED accreditation was something accessible to people regardless of their role on the design team or their expertise in working with LEED and sustainable design,” explains Andy Hathaway, Director of Sustainability Consulting, Steven Winter Associates, Norwalk, Conn. “You have over 100,000 LEED accredited professionals
McGraw-Hill Construction estimates that the value of green building construction starts grew five-fold from 2005 to 2008 and will more than double over the next five years reaching $96-140 billion in 2013. Helping to fuel the growth is state and local legislation mandating green building and the integration of sustainable building practices into building codes and regulations. Russell Unger: “I think in the high-end market, green building is standard. When you go outside that market, the cost, the expertise ... is still not there.” Over the last nine years LEED has evolved and grown. Rating systems are now available for
Changes in LEED version 3 also known as LEED 2009, are focusing project teams on strategies to save energy and water, reduce CO2 emissions and address issues impacting their region. Related Links: LEED Online Professional Accreditation In prior versions, credits were all created equal. DEANE “Measurement and verification of your mechanical system was given the same weight as a bicycle rack,” says Michael Deane, vice president and chief sustainability officer at New York-based Turner Construction. Critics charged that weighing credits equally did not properly emphasize energy consumption and climate change impacts. Others complained LEED did not account for regional differences
When the New York State Dept. of Transportation put together a needs analysis in early 2008, it based its projections on inflation rates from prior projects. Photo: put photo credit here The New York School Construction Authority has seen the number of bids skyrocket on projects like the Mott Haven School Project in the Bronx. “We had seen rapid escalations in construction costs that were averaging about 20%,” says Stanley Gee, NYS DOT acting commissioner. But during 2008 the department started noticing a difference. “The bids were only going up 7% above our estimates last year,” Gee says. “And this
From its office overlooking the 16-acre World Trade Center site, the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center has a bird’s-eye view of the day-to-day progress of construction projects in and around the site. Photo: Joe Woolhead, courtesy of Silverstein Properties LMCCC is fi nding that 4D modeling is a powerful tool for communicating progress on the World Trade Center site and all of Lower Manhattan. Photo: LMCCC Still image from a 4D simulation run of planned and under construction projects in Lower Manhattan. Alternate shades of blue indicate expected construction progress at certain future dates. Photo: LMCCC Modeling showed how options
The industry continues to try to wrap its arms around what BIM means for green building. While building information modeling is fostering collaboration and improving efficiencies in sustainable design and construction, most experts across the A/E/C industry say it’s still a work in progress. Interoperability and process challenges must be resolved, many say, before BIM can achieve its full promise to help deliver healthy, resource-efficient facilities with reduced carbon footprints. Photo: Oliver Schaper, Gensler The Revit model for the Beacon Institute in Beacon, N.Y. was used for daylighting analysis. The project is reusing and expanding an existing 19th Century masonry
Damaged during the attacks of Sept. 11, the demolition of Borough of Manhattan Community College building begins. Fiterman Hall is finally coming down, and for the City University of New York and the Lower Manhattan community, the resulting hole in the ground will be a most welcome site. Photo courtesy Airtek Environmental Corporation At the completion of the decontamination process in late May 2009 only the slab, walls and steel structure of the building remained. Miles and Shirley Fiterman donated the 15-story, 375,000-sq-ft building at 30 W. Broadway to the Borough of Manhattan Community College in 1993. The circa 1959
Fiona Cousins specializes in translating sustainability from an abstract idea into concrete solutions on the ground. Originally trained as a mechanical engineer, Cousins now leads sustainable consulting and building design teams as a principal in ARUP’s New York office. n addition to her sustainability consulting, Cousins is kept busy directing several construction projects, including the new chemistry building at Princeton University - a site she visits once a week. Related Links: Two Weeks in the Life of Langan International’s George Leventis A Day in the Life of USGBCNY’s Russell Unger COUSINS Sustainable building captured Cousins’s interest early in her career.
Russell Unger, executive director of the New York Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council, wants to make green building the norm in New York City. Russell Unger, Executive Director of the New York Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBCNY), conferring with Yetsuh Frank, Director of Programs. Unger’s days are filled with a mixture of green building events, in-person meetings, phone calls and mountains of emails. Related Links: Two Weeks in the Life of Langan International’s George Leventis A Day in the Life of ARUP Engineer Fiona Cousins To date, most green buildings in New York are high-end,