New exhibit at Skyscraper Museum features designs of sustainable buildings in Lower Manhattan

Through its current display, the Skyscraper Museum in Battery Park seeks to educate visitors on the principles and technologies of green design through the display of models, computer simulations, material samples, and more.

The exhibit, which opened January 24, is entitled "Green Towers for New York: From Visionary to Vernacular." It focuses on 14 sustainable high-rise buildings already completed or in progress in the city. These projects range from corporate headquarters, such as the New York Times, Hearst, and Bank of America towers, to new office buildings like 7 World Trade Center to residential projects in Battery Park City. "Green Towers" will also compare the technologies of older construction, including plumbing, heating, and cooling systems, with the newest developments in these fields.

A green or sustainable building is one that conserves energy and resources, reduces emission of hazardous substances, and improves the quality of life for inhabitants. The exhibition will also spotlight the Solaire, the nation's first environmentally responsible high-rise residential building, located in Battery Park City. Engineered to be earth-friendly, the Solaire, which was completed in 2003, consumes 35 percent less energy and conserves 50 percent more water than traditional residential buildings. It also provides high indoor air quality and an abundance of natural light.

"Advocates for sustainable design have been gaining momentum since the late 1990s, when showcase structures such as 4 Times Square (the Condé Nast Building) demonstrated how high-performance buildings could save energy and water and offer healthier interior environments for employees and boost their productivity," says Carol Willis, the museum's founder, director, and curator. "All of this is good economics, for the building owner and for the business client, as well as for cleaner air in the urban environment. So, one important message of "Green Towers" is that everybody wins with sustainable building design."

In addition to showing the benefits of green design, the exhibition also helps showcase how energy efficient New York City is, with its high density, high-rise developments and reliance on mass transit.

"New York City can be called the greenest place in America when measured by energy use per inhabitant. If the city were the fifty-first state, it would rank twelfth in population and last in energy consumption," Willis says. "The transit strike vividly illustrated one of the reasons why; New Yorkers use mass transit, which cuts down enormously our use of energy."

The Skyscraper Museum offers eight lectures in conjunction with its 2006 exhibition "Green Towers for New York: From Visionary to Vernacular." "Green Teams" highlights the creative collaboration among clients, developers, architects, engineers, builders, material manufacturers, and building-systems designers who have developed the new generation of New York's sustainable skyscrapers. The series also explores the current dynamic of design and dissemination of green building strategies. For more information on the lecture series, click here or call the museum at (212) 968-1961.

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