Audubon Society Cops Highest LEED-CI Platinum Rating Ever at 225 Varick Street
Stephen Del Percio
The National Audubon Society’s new office space on the seventh floor of 225 Varick Street has earned the highest point total ever for a Platinum LEED for Commercial Interiors certification. USGBC formally conferred the award late last month, and the project also received honors as one of New York Construction magazine’s Best of 2008 projects. We noted the project last February right after the Audubon Society moved into its new space; you may recall that during the 1990s it had renovated its former headquarters at 700 Broadway using similar sustainable design features, so green construction techniques were not foreign to the organization at all.
Designed by FXFOWLE and built by Citadel Construction, the 25,000-square-foot office was once home to a printing company, and a major design goal was to retain the space’s loft-like features. Accordingly, engineers WSP Flack + Kurtz designed the space’s HVAC system to eliminate overhead ductwork. The system also operates separately from the rest of the 12-story building (which was built back in 1926) and the project team also installed a separate cooling tower with new supply and return risers. The office’s floors are bare concrete and treated with either natural cork or low-VOC sealants while countertops were installed with recycled glass and compressed paper. The space also features a daylight harvesting system and is insulated at three times code. In the images below, you can see the five-foot wide access corridor that allows light to penetrate into the office core through double-paned windows. Congratulations to the Audubon Society on completing one of New York City’s best LEED projects!
- Highest Ranked LEED-CI in Nation (MSNBC)
- 225 Varick Street (gbNYC)
- Audubon’s New Workplace (NAS)
Comment by Evan Santi on 13 January 2009:
This is truly remarkable. It shows that even in an area of the city that has not been known to go green, major progress can be made. I remember when this building was a printing factory just outside the Holland Tunnel. Although it is a shame that most of the printing jobs are leaving Manhattan for LIC and Jersey City, it is amazing to see how they can transform a factory to beautiful green platinum LEED building. A shining example of what can be done; I hope other builders will follow their lead.
Evan Santi
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