Green retrofit award for NYC landmark

Last month, the Sustainable Buildings Industry Council acknowledged the Empire State Building as an example of an outstanding retrofit project. Clinton Climate Initiative, Johnson Controls Inc., Jones Lang LaSalle, and Rocky Mountain Institute, all partners in the project, were given the Beyond Green High Performance Building Award, a prize reserved for projects that demonstrate leading practice in whole-building approaches to design and construction. Dattner Architects were winners of the same award in 2007 for their work on the Bronx Library Center. With its new retrofit package, the Empire State Building expects to reduce its energy use by 38% annually, with an associated cost savings of $4.4 million, according to modeling and analysis carried out by the project team. The retrofit project has its own web site, which contains useful information on the design process, the tools used by the project team, and expected outcomes following retrofit construction. The website also has a few extra features, such as a downloadable Powerpoint presentation and copies of the Energy Services Performance Contract. You can learn more about the Sustainable Buildings Industry Council, where you can view past and present winners of the Beyond Green awards for High-Performance Buildings and High-Performance Initiatives, on their website. And as you might imagine, retrofits are a topic we’ve addressed previously on the GreenHomeNYC website.