Roosevelt Island Celebrates New Gold Standard for Energy Efficient Buildings
JULY 03, 2014
Roosevelt Landings, an Urban American residential complex located on Roosevelt Island in New York City, celebrated the completion of its $7.4M, large-scale retrofit this past Friday with a ribbon cutting ceremony. The “Power on Ceremony,” held at the Roosevelt Landings Amphitheatre, was attended by project team members including property owner and real estate investment company, Urban American; lead project engineer and energy consultant, Steven Winter Associates (SWA); the project developer and manager, Urban Greenfit, LLC (UGF) an energy service company; and building economists from KGS Buildings, LLC.
Opening and guest remarks were delivered by John Rhodes, President and CEO, NYSERDA; Gale Brewer, Manhattan Borough President; Susan Leeds, CEO, NYCEEC; John Lee, Deputy Director for Buildings and Energy Efficiency; John Skipper, Manager for Energy Efficiency, Con Edison; Josh Eisenberg, Principal, Urban American; and David Davenport, Principal, Urban Greenfit.
Roosevelt Landings represents a significant achievement in energy-efficient design and engineering, enabled by a strategic financing collaboration. SWA and UGF devised a turnkey solution to design, implement, and finance the retrofits for the 1,003-unit, nine-building, former Mitchell Lama complex. UGF was created to finance the improvements, alleviating much of the upfront costs to Urban American. In addition, incentives for energy-savings were provided through NYSERDA and Con Edison.
Improvements to Roosevelt Landings feature installation of a combined heat and power (CHP) plant and domestic hot water (DHW) boiler upgrade; electrical heat control with programmable thermostats; comprehensive air-sealing of the building envelope and interior spaces; floor-slab insulation; and building operator and resident education.
“The level of collaboration and high-standard of work has produced an outstanding result; I am intensely proud of the improvements made to Roosevelt Landings,” stated Mr. Davenport. “Above all, we are excited about the advantages that this project will provide to our residents.”
The retrofits resulted in 2.5M kWh savings in the first winter—a laudable accomplishment since upgrades were completed well after the heating season began. The one million square foot complex was the first multifamily project to utilize New York City Energy Efficiency Corporation (NYCEEC) financing. The project also represents the largest air sealing scope ever implemented in NYC.