New York's First Green Residential High-Rise at Battery Park City

A residential tower now being designed for the southern tip of Manhattan will be the first to implement a comprehensive set of green guidelines established for such projects by the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA). To create the building, a team led by Albanese Development Corporation was selected based on responses to a solicitation from BPCA to nine New York developers. “The team we assembled demonstrates experience in green design, experience in Battery Park City, and a commitment to follow through on the guidelines set forth by BPCA,” says Russell Albanese.

BPCA was created in 1968 by the New York State Legislature to oversee the development of residential and commercial properties on a 92-acre (37 ha) site over what was once the Hudson River. The site was created when a series of deteriorating and abandoned shipping piers were buried with material excavated during the construction of the World Trade Center. A $200 million bond issue was passed to finance the infrastructure, and development was spurred by the construction of the World Financial Center, which now employs 40,000 people. While much of the site is being developed as commercial, residential, and institutional buildings, a total of 35 acres (14 ha) is being preserved as parks and open space. (Encouraged by progress on its first green high-rise, on October 4, 2000 BPCA released Requests for Proposals for two more such buildings adjacent to the first.)