PORTLAND, Ore. – If workers get a little too hot or cold at their desks in one of the newest skyscrapers under construction in New York City, they will be able to adjust the temperature with switches tailored to individuals, not entire floors or buildings.
The individual controls, expected to save millions of dollars in operating costs, are among the new designs being incorporated into so-called “green” buildings, including the One Bryant Park building in the center of Manhattan that will be the new Bank of America headquarters.
The building will be a showcase for the U.S. Green Building Council, which is holding its national conference this week in Portland – considered the “greenest” U.S. city by the council.
Rick Fedrizzi, council chairman, said Portland has been a leader in the effort to improve the energy efficiency of buildings while providing healthier working conditions and promoting environmentally friendly practices.
The council, established in 1993, promotes its “leadership in energy and environmental design,” or LEED, rating system as a voluntary national standard. Requests for LEED certification have rapidly expanded in the past few years as builders and corporate owners have tried to reduce costs, Fedrizzi said.
Green technology can reduce costs by millions of dollars over the life of the building, but “it doesn’t cost a penny more than conventional construction,” Fedrizzi said.
The One Bryant Park building design by Cook+Fox Architects of New York will feature a long list of new technology, including floor-to-ceiling windows made of translucent insulating glass, a 4.6-megawatt co-generation plant to help power the building, a gray water system to capture and reuse rain and wastewater, and roof gardens to reduce heat pollution.
Bob Fox, one of the chief architects, said the biggest savings could be in health care.
Providing access to sunlight for every level and office is a psychological benefit, while the innovative filtered ventilation system built into floors instead of ceilings will provide individual temperature control and greatly reduce interior air pollution to improve overall health.
Construction and interior materials such as carpeting and plastic components will not contain high levels of volatile organic compounds – the trace amounts of potentially cancer-causing chemicals that help create the new car smell – typically found in such materials in the past, Fox said.
The building will cost about $375 per square foot to operate, according to estimates.
But if each worker increases productivity by just 1 percent – about five minutes a day – because of improved health and mood, it results in huge savings over time, Fox said.
The actual savings likely will approach 5 percent to 10 percent, he said, “because it will dramatically decrease sick days and increase productivity.”
Many manufacturers are already lining up to provide green materials and designs, said Fedrizzi, a former United Technologies executive who helped found the council.
The conference itself is evidence of the growing interest, with more than 400 booths featuring building supply companies, architectural services, electrical equipment manufacturers and many others – far more than the dozen booths that populated a council conference just a few years ago.
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