RECORD speaks with the principal of SOMA, the architecture firm behind the controversial Park51 Muslim community center proposed for Lower Manhattan. Amid the controversy surrounding Park51, the Muslim community center and worship space in Lower Manhattan labeled the “Ground Zero Mosque” by its opponents, the young New York-based firm SOMA Architects last week quietly unveiled designs for the new 15-story building. “I think the location of the center has been overexposed and overrated,” says Michel Abboud, principal at SOMA. Abboud recently sat down in the firm's new Midtown office to answer questions about Park51, its design, SOMA's history, and the

An Economic Approach to Retrofits Air handler units are being replaced with variable-frequency drive fans for better efficiency and more tenant control. Occupied spaces will have demand-control ventilation and air quality monitoring, and the whole building will get an upgrade of existing building controls for better HVAC performance, with the addition of metering. Photo by Alex Padalka Instead of ordering 6,500 new windows, the team is simply refurbishing the existing ones, creating triple glazed panels, and performing the work from inside the building. “It was challenging exploring ides that might not be implemented, looking at the ideas on the edges

An Economic Approach to Retrofits Those 38 percent in energy savings will reduce CO2 emissions by 105,000 metric tons over 15 years, according to projections released by the building’s owners. Photo by Alex Padalka Upgrading the existing chiller cells, some parts of which having been in use since 1931, represented $16 million in savings over what it would have cost to replace the entire plant. The Goals “Typically, a building retrofit will get a 15-20-percent [energy savings],” Baczko says. “And that’s if they’re lucky.” In comparison, the 38 percent the Empire State Building is shooting for seems daunting. But the

An Economic Approach to Retrofits When the owners of the Empire State Building in 2007 decided to move forward with a new capital improvement plan, they were looking for standard improvements to get the building to Class A commercial status. At the time they were looking at traditional, “common sense” improvements, such as bringing the 25% to 30% of the building lacking air conditioning some thermal control. The Empire State Building retrofit was selected by the Clinton Climate Initiative as the first, symbollic project for its retrofit division. CCI is now partner in more than 250 retrofits in 20 cities

After four years of preparation by more than 400 representatives from the construction industry, the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) has unveiled a comprehensive redesign of its 49-year-old building code. It adapts to national and international standards for the first time, encourages greater safety, and simplifies processing for contractors. It will also introduce time saving benefits such as digital filing online. The new code will be flexible and revised every three years. To start, it adopts five out of the eight code standards prescribed by the International Code Council: fuel and gas, mechanical, plumbing, electrical, and building. It