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Ecofriendly Luxury

By: NANCY RUHLING
Published: 12/4/2006Source: New York House Magazine

Ecofriendly Luxury
Riverhouse, a 31-story, 246-unit condominium going up in New York's Battery Park City, combines luxurious amenities and star-designed interiors with green technologies-from geothermal wells and photovoltaic panels to a triple-glaze window system on the exterior, all of which make the building 25 to 30 percent more efficient than New York state code.


 Higher & Greener

Riverhouse promises new heights in ecofriendly building and design.
 


Developer Chris Daley, president of the Sheldrake Organization.
In Manhattan, Battery Park City is as green as it gets, but Riverhouse, the new luxury condo development overlooking the Hudson River that is rising right around the corner from 4 World Financial Center, is raising the bar so high by marrying high-minded environmental principles with high design that it scrapes the sky.

Although the 31-story, 264-unit complex, where one- to four-bedroom condos are selling for $815,000 to over $3 million, will not be ready for occupancy until next year, its green features, star designers, and over-the-top amenities, which include a dog spa and lobbies decorated with oversized saltwater aquariums, have created such a buzz in a market where "luxury" is the expected standard that 50 residences were snapped up during the first six weeks the sales office was open.

"This is the greenest building in New York," declares developer Chris Daly, the president of The Sheldrake Organization Inc., adding that the environmentally friendly features have added about 9 percent, or more than $30 million, to the cost of Riverhouse. "In New York City, we are probably the only building on water, on a park, and green. We are the first green condominium of any consequence in New York City. We already have the Gold LEED certification, and we're going for a platinum LEED rating, which has not been done before."

Sheldrake has dubbed Riverhouse's new shade of green, the one that will go Platinum, Oxygen Green, which also refers to the four-color blend that informs the interiors of the units. "It is the color of fresh, clean air and the purest water," Daly says. "It is a way to live a full life in the city in a low-E [low emission of pollutants] environment, using less water and electricity."

Specifically, two innovative components that make Riverhouse so green are the two 500-foot-deep geothermal wells and the energy-efficient triple-glaze system on the building's glass curtain windows. "The wells give us the capacities to air-condition both the Riverhouse lobbies," Daly says. "This will save the building a small amount, about $20,000 per year. We use this technology because it's innovative; it's never been done on a large-scale basis in New York City."

The Future of Residential Developments?
Besides its energy-efficient features, Riverhouse offers residents twice-filtered fresh air, and low toxin-emitting paints, adhesives, and sealants and humidification during the winter also help refresh the air. Such measures lead to health and well-being. For developer Chris Daly, president of Sheldrake Organization, Inc., green technology is "the next social movement for our firm to engage in for the welfare of our tenants."
The window-curtain technology, which has never been used in the United States, utilizes three panes of glass-two sandwiched together and the third six inches from them. "Through natural convection, air can be utilized to either cool or heat the residences," he says.

Riverhouse, set on the last waterfront site on Battery Park City's 92 acres, also employs an array of more garden-variety green techniques to save energy, water, and improve environmental quality.

Louvered photovoltaic cells on the roof that maximize solar energy by tracking the sun, designer Energy Star appliances, a master light switch, dimmers and efficient lighting fixtures, heat pumps with programmable thermostats, and double-pane glass windows make Riverhouse 25 to 30 percent more efficient than the New York State code requires. And heliostats-mirrors mounted on a building across the street-reflect sun onto the public park that lies between the building's wings, making it a bright gathering spot.

Water filtration systems in the kitchens and baths, planted terraces on 75 percent of the roof space that capture up to 50 percent of natural rainfall with the balance recycled for irrigation, an on-site water recycling program, and TOTO dual-flush water closets conserve 30,000 gallons of water per day, which, Daly points out, is equivalent to 320,100 12-ounce bottles of water. "Water from the sinks in the units goes into a catch basin in the basement, where it is filtered, and it is used to feed the toilet bowl water in the building," he says. "It's perfectly clean, you can drink it, but we're recycling it. We also are taking the roof runoff water, bringing it into the basement and filtering it, and we use it to water the shrubs around the building and the green roofs."

Residents literally can breathe easier because Riverhouse filters fresh air not once but twice before pumping it into each condo. Low toxin-emitting paints, adhesives, and sealants and humidification during the winter also help refresh the air.

Riverhouse's setting in Battery Park City
As if that isn't green enough, the building, which is comprised of a tower and two wings, is made of 65 percent ecofriendly materials. More than 20 percent is made of recycled materials, and more than 80 percent of the construction waste is being recycled. The lobbies and amenity spaces have reclaimed flooring, and more than 40 percent of the production materials were acquired locally and include renewable woods. 

Battery Park City, where the country's first green residential tower, the 27-story, 293-apartment Solaire opened in 2003, has officially been green since 2000, when mandatory green guidelines were enacted for new residential construction. Riverhouse is among five complexes that are being planned or in the works. Millennium Partners is building a 35-story, 236-unit condo at Little West Street and First Place; Albanese is planning a 33-story, 251-unit condo tower at 70 Little West Street; and Milstein Properties is putting up two towers with a total of 421 condos at North End Avenue between Murray and Warren Streets.

The greening of Riverhouse, Sheldrake's first luxury residential project, is the result of a high-profile collaboration: Polshek Partnership Architects designed the exterior, which includes the innovative glass curtain wall; Ismael Leyva Architects created the interior footprints of the units, which take advantage of energy-efficient features while offering panoramic views on two to three sides; and David Rockwell pulled it all together by using green products-everything from reclaimed flooring in the lobbies and amenity spaces to low toxin-emitting paints, adhesives, and sealants-to create avant-garde living spaces.

The 50-foot swimming pool in hues of "oxygen green"
"To me, Oxygen Green is a color that defines purity," says Rockwell, whose Riverhouse interiors have the sleek, clean aesthetics of Asian spas. "I see it as pale blue-green; it is both peaceful and has vitality-we are using it as a guiding design principle."

Riverhouse's first floor houses nonprofits, including the first public library branch in Lower Manhattan, and Poets House, a literary archive and meeting place. The amenities, including a billiards room, fitness center, dog spa, a glass-tiled 50-foot swimming pool, and a whimsical child's playhouse that looks like a lighthouse, are on the second floor. A 24-hour concierge caters to every whim, and ride-sharing Zipcars and ecofriendly OzoCars are available for those who don't need a full-time parking space.

A sample bedroom
"With New York City having the highest asthma rate in the city, the green technology seemed to be the next social movement for our firm to engage in for the welfare of tenants," Daly says. "It is applicable to all our buildings, and what we will do in all our buildings from now on is use the nontoxic paints, nontoxic glues in pressboard that is used for kitchen cabinets, and use nontoxin-emitting carpets. When you walk into any green building like this one, you won't have that typical 'new-car smell.'"

Daly and Monique Roeder, Sheldrake's marketing director, see Riverhouse as the future of residential development in America.

After touring the building site, Roeder turns toward the Statue of Liberty and removes her plastic hard hat, which is, incidentally, a pretty shade of forest green. She gazes up at the skeleton of Riverhouse as workers crawl over its column supports like bees on a hive and the river wind turns the orange mesh construction curtains into Christo's billowing Gates. "This is not just another big box," she says. "It's a feeling, a lifestyle, and an energy. It's a new way of looking at life and living. And it proves that you can have luxury standards and still be friendly to the Earth. We're proving that it can be done and that it should be done, and this model will roll out all over." The End

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