The Sound of Green

 

NEW YORK — Housed in an old industrial printing building in the Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea, the studio where public radio program, “Democracy Now!” broadcasts from recently earned the distinction of the only radio, television and Internet production studio in the United States to receive LEED Platinum for Commercial Interiors certification.

 

Brooklyn Interiors, a studio construction and green building firm based in New York, managed the project, which involved redesigning the 9,000-square-foot floor-space and outfitting it with room for technical equipment and broadcast functionality for radio and television. Brooklyn Interiors constructed a custom tracking system for all products used during construction to ensure they were local, Forest Stewardship Council-certified, and made of recycled materials.

 

The result: 100 percent of the wood in the new studio is from managed forests, and 82 percent of all construction debris was recycled or reused in the building process. Low-flow plumbing fixtures and sensors conserve approximately 25 percent of water compared to best practices, and LEED and fluorescent lights, equipped with occupancy and daylight sensors, provide 50 percent improved energy efficiency. Low VOC paints, and local construction materials were used, repurposing parts of the building played a major role in the design.

 

The cost to employ these fixtures and materials was nominal compared to using conventional commercial materials, says Dennis Darcy, principal at Brooklyn Interiors.

 

“To gain an extraordinary percentage of the building re-use credit, we refurbished and reintegrated the old factory windows into office space walls to provide artistic clerestory-like partitions to bring the perimeter daylight deeper into the space,” Darcy says. “We re-used old diamond-plate steel panels, which were left over from the printing house flooring, to construct a machine room ramp and siding for a creative, yet practical, industrial detail.”

 

Working with Bogdanow Partners Architects of New York, Darcy questioned the developers’ initial decision to target only a LEED Silver rating.

 

“We realized we could achieve a Platinum rating if we diligently kept track of every detail, like the levels of recycled content and all purchase receipts,” says Darcy. “Educating the crew and the subcontractors was key.”

 

“Generally a contractor’s file cabinet is the dashboard of the truck, but for proper evaluation for the USGBC we had to be more diligent,” Darcy explained with regard to the documentation needed for LEED credits.

 

Using a live Excel spreadsheet, Darcy connected web-links to receipts, MDSDs, reports, and certificates that were uploaded and organized for easy viewing.

 

“The program gave a real-time analysis of the current status of the project at any point during the construction process,” Darcy says. “This system was unequivocally the most crucial part of our success to gaining Platinum certification.”

 

A combination of education, research, and documentation ultimately led to the success of the “Democracy Now!” project, says Darcy.

 

“Through smart choices, intelligent and ongoing conversations, and constant communication, along with persistent and diligent research and a detailed documentation structure, we kept the train on the tracks and brought the project to our maximum goal within the client’s budget,” he says.