January 2008: High Performance Affordable Housing: New Developments

Wednesday, Jan 16, 2008 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm Location: Hafele NYC at Madison Square Park (25 E. 26th St.) Download the speakers’ presentations (7.6MB PDF) Summary: Our January Green Building Forum invites you to come hear about how some affordable housing developments have come to be counted among the greenest buildings in NYC. Many banks, housing organizations, and advocates are now requiring that their affordable housing developments be “green”. Many definitions of green exist in the marketplace, yet some developers have succeeded in taking off-the-shelf technologies to design buildings that perform exceptionally well – the true hallmark of sustainable design. Some of the buildings featured in tonight’s presentation use 65% less heating energy per square foot than the typical multifamily building in NYC. Listen to the experience of developers, bankers, and consultants who have successfully completed high performance green buildings in New York City. By attending this session, participants will learn:

• Successful developers have built affordable housing that meets LEED and/or Energy Star standards and performs spectacularly
• The most effective technologies are not the bells and whistles, but tried and true technologies, some decades old, which are fully proven in the field.
• Some financial projections of energy usage in affordable housing are substantially lower than actual, particularly in buildings that do not meet code or attempt to achieve certain sustainability standards

Speakers: Mark Zimet is the Director of Development for Dunn Development Corp., one of the most successful affordable housing developers in NYS. Mark was actively involved in the design and construction oversight for the first and only two High Rise Energy Star Buildings in the US , both affordable housing developments in NYC, and is now overseeing two new buildings in NYSERDA’s Multifamily Building Performance Program. Mark joined Dunn Development Corp. after nearly eight years at Volunteers of America – Greater New York, a large non-profit human services organization. Les Bluestone is the co-founder of Blue Sea Development Company, LLC, and has been involved in the real estate development and construction industries for over 30 years. In addition to the first Energy Star and first LEED affordable homes in NYC, Les has developed and constructed a wide range of market-rate and affordable housing units throughout the New York City metropolitan area under a variety of programs, including the NYC Housing Partnership New Homes Program, the NYC Housing Development Corporation’s 80/20 Program, NYS Housing Trust Fund and Homes for Working Families, and both Federal and NYS Low Income Housing Tax Credit programs. Les serves as Chair of the board for NYC Habitat for Humanity, is a member of the Housing First! advocacy group, the U.S. Green Building Council, the National Brownfield Association, a board member of the New York State Association for Affordable Housing, and an advisory board member to The Housing Partnership Development Corporation and the Long Island Housing Partnership. Sam Marks is Assistant Vice President for Deutsche Bank’s Community Development Finance Group, with a focus on lending and investing in local and national affordable housing development and other social ventures. He is also helping to coordinate the bank’s participation in the Clinton Climate Initiative. He earned a Masters in Public Policy & Urban Planning at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Sam previously served as Director of Housing & Community Development at the nonprofit community development organization WHEDCo, where he acted as lead representative on a $45 million development of 174 units of affordable housing in Bronx, NY, which were included in NYSERDA’s Multifamily Energy Star pilot program. While at WHEDCo, Sam also started the Urban Horizons Retrofit Program, an initiative to retrofit its existing building to improve energy efficiency and lower greenhouse gas emissions. Sam founded Breakthrough New York, an academic enrichment program in which high school and college students teach motivated middle school students from public schools. Panel Moderator: F.L. Andrew Padian of Steven Winter Associates has over 28 years of experience in the unique building science of multifamily buildings. He has performed detailed energy analysis on hundreds of multifamily buildings across the country, providing recommendations for energy and water efficiency, comfort, durability, and health & safety for both new and existing buildings. He runs the Multifamily Buildings Division for Steven Winter Associates, Inc., a nationally recognized consulting firm and leader in sustainable building practices. Mr. Padian is a frequent contributor to energy and sustainable publications, and has spoken at numerous conferences across the country over the last 20 years. He lives in NYC, and is involved in many sustainable causes there, including GreenHomeNYC, the Clinton Community Garden , and the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association.