Charging the Battery: Energy Efficiency in Battery Park City

Kevin Finnegan, Antony Woo, and Hugh L. Carey, Battery Park City Authority
Adam Hinge, Sustainable Energy Partnerships

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Abstract

Battery Park City (BPC) is a 92-acre neighborhood in New York City’s lower Manhattan, which has been developed over the past few decades by the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA), a public benefit corporation established in 1968 to develop the site. In the late 1990s, BPCA committed that all future buildings built on the remaining undeveloped parcels would need to meet “Green Guidelines,” and published leading edge Environmental Guidelines. These Green Guidelines represent an ambitious effort to ensure environmentally responsible construction on a large scale in a high density urban context. By encouraging developers to strive for “green” or “sustainable design”, the BPCA Green Guidelines establish BPC as a premier community with environmentally friendly places to live and work in urban environments. The first building constructed to meet the Green Guidelines, a 27 story apartment building, was completed in 2003.

The BPCA has also begun work on development and implementation of a sustainable energy master plan for the entire community with the objectives of reducing energy use and associated environmental impacts, maximizing the efficiency of the community’s energy systems, and improving system reliability. This effort, with a crucial community education component, involves working with building managers and tenants in the existing commercial and residential buildings in BPC to identify and implement energy savings and clean distributed generation opportunities. This paper reviews the development and implementation of the Green Guidelines, and progress toward improving the energy efficiency of BPC’s existing buildings.