GROW NYC 

(Ore Design + Technology)

 

Sustainable Systems for Grow_NYC Food Distribution Center, New York 

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This report was developed to illustrate the selection of innovative sustainable systems and present (at a high level) how they can be incorporated into the building’s design. The framework for evaluating the building systems contained in this report is a balance between three areas: goals expressed by GrowNYC, applicability based on site conditions, and ultimately if the system is using an existing technology that has been applied in existing, analogous projects.

GrowNYC has expressed the goal of an onsite Bio-digester as the main source of building power. GrowNYC has also expressed interests in reducing atmospheric carbon, minimizing municipal water usage, creating pollinator habitats, using photovoltaics to generate power on-site, employing the most efficient warehouse operational systems (lighting, heating, cooling), and designing a façade that will reflect the special nature of GrowNYC’s Foodhub program and the building that houses it.

Understanding site conditions are vital to choosing the right technology to power, heat, cool, or clad your building. Site conditions are both as large scale as latitude coordinates and climate zone, and as specific as the solar angles, prevailing winds, and ground conditions at 1418 Viele Avenue, Bronx and its adjacent lots. In this report, we’ve only begun the process of evaluating site conditions to the point of informing further design decision making. A thorough site evaluation will need to be conducted, via testing agencies and engineers, prior to designing an integrated system reliant on local climate, weather, and infrastructural conditions so that it may function optimally.

Lastly, in order to identify a truly unique integrated building strategy befitting the significance of the GrowNYC FoodHub project, it is important that existing technologies are employed to ensure proper utilization and reduce the risk of underperformance or periods of maintenance during operations. Therefore the most important aspect of this report is to identify sustainable technologies currently on the market and in use in projects that can provide a sense of applicability, life cycle cost and return on investment. To achieve this we went to sources including, but not limited to: The USGBC, the Living Building Institute, the National Renewable Energy Lab, the National Institute for Building Sciences, and Green Star.

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