How Green Is Demolition?
Forest City Ratner put out a press release last week announcing the pending demolition of the Ward Bakery, as if this would somehow be good for the environment. This historic building is one of the most significant architectural buildings on the site, and should be recycled and reused as a component in the overall development. But instead, it is being demolished to make an enormous at-grade parking lot that will be in place for decades, according to the designers.
So how is the demolition of this important building good for the environment? Turns out that since “at least 75% of the demolition debris is expected to be recycled”, the demolition is good news, helping the overall project qualify for LEED certification. LEED certification is one measure of sustainable and environmentally sensitive design. According to Mr. Ratner, the developers are “seeking out every possible way to make Atlantic Yards as eco-friendly and environmentally responsible as possible”.
Oh c’mon. Demolishing this building to make a giant parking lot is as “eco-friendly” as driving a Hummer to the supermarket to buy air-freighted “organic” food. Besides running counter to well-known concepts of embedded energy, as explained in Norman Oder’s blog recently, confusing demolition with a sustainable strategy is very clearly counter to the intent of the LEED guidelines.
LEED assigns points for various green initiatives in a project, and awards levels of certification according to how many points a project obtains. The Atlantic Yards project, according to the press release, is apparently trying for a “Certified” level, which is obtained by achieving 26 to 32 LEED points. The next level, Silver, had been mentioned earlier, but requires projects to achieve 33 to 38 points. Gold is awarded for 39 to 51 points, and Platinum for 52 to 69 points. Not surprisingly, a “Certified” level is very easily obtained by most projects. The City’s Local Law 86, signed by Mayor Bloomberg on October 3rd, 2005, requires all projects with any City funding with an estimated construction cost of over $2 million to design for a Silver level, as a minimum.
One way to increase the number of LEED points available to the project would be by maintaining existing buildings in place. The LEED rating system is far from perfect, but it is very explicit in encouraging the reuse of buildings in place, rather than expending energy to take them apart. According to the LEED guidelines for Credits MR 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3, the intent of these credits is to “Extend the life cycle of existing building stock, conserve resources, retain cultural resources, reduce waste and reduce environmental impacts of new buildings as they relate to materials manufacturing and transport.” If the project was really as “eco-friendly and environmentally responsible as possible”, it would reuse the significant existing buildings.
So how is the demolition of this important building good for the environment? Turns out that since “at least 75% of the demolition debris is expected to be recycled”, the demolition is good news, helping the overall project qualify for LEED certification. LEED certification is one measure of sustainable and environmentally sensitive design. According to Mr. Ratner, the developers are “seeking out every possible way to make Atlantic Yards as eco-friendly and environmentally responsible as possible”.
Oh c’mon. Demolishing this building to make a giant parking lot is as “eco-friendly” as driving a Hummer to the supermarket to buy air-freighted “organic” food. Besides running counter to well-known concepts of embedded energy, as explained in Norman Oder’s blog recently, confusing demolition with a sustainable strategy is very clearly counter to the intent of the LEED guidelines.
LEED assigns points for various green initiatives in a project, and awards levels of certification according to how many points a project obtains. The Atlantic Yards project, according to the press release, is apparently trying for a “Certified” level, which is obtained by achieving 26 to 32 LEED points. The next level, Silver, had been mentioned earlier, but requires projects to achieve 33 to 38 points. Gold is awarded for 39 to 51 points, and Platinum for 52 to 69 points. Not surprisingly, a “Certified” level is very easily obtained by most projects. The City’s Local Law 86, signed by Mayor Bloomberg on October 3rd, 2005, requires all projects with any City funding with an estimated construction cost of over $2 million to design for a Silver level, as a minimum.
One way to increase the number of LEED points available to the project would be by maintaining existing buildings in place. The LEED rating system is far from perfect, but it is very explicit in encouraging the reuse of buildings in place, rather than expending energy to take them apart. According to the LEED guidelines for Credits MR 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3, the intent of these credits is to “Extend the life cycle of existing building stock, conserve resources, retain cultural resources, reduce waste and reduce environmental impacts of new buildings as they relate to materials manufacturing and transport.” If the project was really as “eco-friendly and environmentally responsible as possible”, it would reuse the significant existing buildings.
posted by Jonathan at 11:22 PM
7 Comments:
it just seems like every day this thing gets worse and worse. more cynical, more destructive, more horrible.
In terms of the overall plan, have the designers /developers told us what the parking lot is intended for? Is this arena parking, residential parking, visitor parking...?
This is really awful!!!
Great post. Thanks.
That's a pretty standard rate of material reuse from demolition.
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When: Sunday June 3rd, Registration 8 am – Rain or Shine
Where: Start/ Finish Grand Army Plaza, Prospect Park
What: Bicycle tour featuring historic Brooklyn neighborhoods, parks and waterfronts.
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Cost: Free but on-line registration required
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This year’s tour gets underway at Grand Army Plaza, a National Historic Landmark at Prospect Park. This year’s 18 mile tour will feature Brooklyn’s southern neighborhoods along the waterfront like Sunset, Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and Bensonhurst and loops towards the heart of Brooklyn, Kensington and Prospect Park South to end at the Carousel.
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Bicycling in New York City has grown by leaps and bounds, there are over 120,000 daily cyclists today, up just 75,000 1992. There are over 36,000 daily cyclists in Brooklyn alone, plus thousands more who bike for fun on the weekends. Transportation Alternatives has been instrumental in winning new bike lanes, improved bridge access, and safe parking for NYC cyclists.
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It's time we stop conflating "sustainability" with LEED certification. LEED addresses building projects and, to a degree, neighborhood development (generally new). Sustainability's global definition encompasses the interrelationships of Community & Cultural Identity, Economy and Environment. Clearly, from a "sustainable" vantage point, this demolition will have a lasting negative effect on all three of these salient components.
There's some research on this subject here.
We have been using the brick from demo'ed commercial building from the early 1900's on new large luxury homes. They call it used brick and there is a big calling for it. It has a battered tumbled look of a old house. We also when we demo a house use the concrete and the old block and bricks. We grind it up with a special machine and make quarry process out of it to under lay driveways and walkways etc. This saves fuel and highway running to the recycle mills. Of course there is some copper and sometimes steel, cast iron etc. to recycle also.
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