Going Platinum

What's Big, Tall, Smart, and Green?

by Amy S. Choi

The 2.1-million-sq.-ft. Bank of America Tower isn't the first skyscraper striving for platinum LEED certification in New York. But it definitely would be the biggest to achieve that top status, laying out a daunting task for the design and construction team that broke ground on the $1-billion project in August.

"What is amazing about this project is we have the opportunity to study technologies at a scale that is normally not available," said Richard Cook, partner at New York City-based Cook + Fox Architects, which is designing the tower. "All of the science comes together quite beautifully on a large project."

The One Bryant Park tower, on Sixth Avenue between 42nd and 43rd Sts., will house the bank's New York City operations and provide 1 million sq. ft. of office space for other tenants upon its completion in early 2008, following the structural steel top off slated for late 2006. The Durst Organization, the project's developer and co-owner with Bank of America Corp., is expecting to command more than $100 per sq. ft. for the tenant office space, nearly double that of other Class A space in Midtown.

Then again, the planned 54-story tower is no ordinary building, starting with its top-flight design. It features two glass spires and more than 600,000 sq. ft. of curtain wall made from a unique high-performance, clear glass. It also incorporates deftly designed lightness and fluidity. The green technology in the tower aims to reduce standard energy consumption by a minimum of 50 percent, potable water consumption by 50 percent, and stormwater volume by 95 percent. The developers also aim to build at least half of the property using recycled materials.

advertisement

Durst is a veteran in the relatively young green construction movement. It had pioneered large-scale green development in its Four Times Square tower only one block to the west, and is currently developing the 600-unit Helena multifamily building on Manhattan's West Side with a green theme as well. Bank of America, one of the founding financial sponsors of the U.S. Green Building Council, also has experience in sustainable development projects.

The co-owners hope to earn enough points on the council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system, a scale of sustainable development, to notch the platinum designation. Only a handful of buildings in the world have earned that highest LEED status.

One of the building's standout design elements is the underfloor displacement air-ventilation system, particularly because this has never been deployed on such a grand scale. With this underfloor air system, tenants in the building have access to individual temperature controls. In addition, the system diffuses air at slightly higher temperatures than with a traditional HVAC system.

Though underfloor air systems are common in trading-floor environments, this is the first time a developer has incorporated it into an entire building, Cook said. While buildings with good filtration systems, by today's standards, filter 35 percent of contaminants, One Bryant Park will have 95 percent filtration. The end result is vastly cleaner air than in ordinary office buildings.

"This is really the next generation of sustainable design," Cook said. "We are not only creating radical energy savings, but creating the best and healthiest possible work environment for the occupants."

Creating this new environment and ensuring LEED platinum standards also requires great care in terms of demolishing prior structures on site. Under these green standards, the excavation, demolition, and foundation work on the Bank of America site will take the better part of a year. Throughout the duration of the construction process, the team is placing equal priority on waste removal from the site, segregating all of the materials at an offsite recycling station.

"We have an intricate waste management plan that started on day one," said Joseph Ross, executive vice president of Tishman Construction Corp. of New York, the project's construction manager. "We've hired several salvaging companies to salvage light fixtures, wood beams - whatever we could keep from going into a landfill. We're also recycling everything we can coming out of the demolition, including bricks, structural steel, copper, and metals."

Of course, the project team has a lot of duties beyond green construction. Among the most prominent issues are historic preservation and managing public works connections.

As part of the site work, the project team is reconstructing and expanding the adjacent Henry Miller Theater on 43rd Street to a 1,000-seat playhouse. Though the structure won't be a green building, the work will restore the theater's original 1918 façade, while incorporating the original plasterwork and iconic sculptures into the new design. One Bryant Park LLC will own the theater, which is a half a block from Times Square.

As part of the project, Durst also is developing a glass-enclosed subway entrance at 42nd St. and Sixth Ave., as well as a new midblock entrance farther down the street. The developer will connect the two entrances along Sixth Ave. to the Times Square station via an underground pedestrian walkway on the north side of 42nd St..

That combination of green design elements, the restoration project challenges, and safety and traffic concerns on 42nd St. make the first phase of the project a hurdle in itself. "This job is incredibly complex as far as logistics goes," Ross said.