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MARCH 10, 2018  BY  DAVID EDWARDS Environmentally-friendly buildings provide $6 billion in benefits to health and climate, says a new Harvard study supported by  United Technologies . These previously undocumented benefits are in addition to $7.5 billion in energy savings, for a combined $13 billion in total benefits. The public health benefits include fewer hospitalizations and reduced climate impacts. The study says this is possible – if they’re energy-efficient buildings.Experts at Harvard University examined a subset of green-certified buildings over a 16-year period in six countries: the US, China, India, Brazil, Germany and Turkey. Known as HEALTHfx, the study found nearly $6 billion in combined health and climate benefits. In some countries, health and climate benefits far exceeded – in dollar amounts – energy savings. Globally, the studied green-certified projects saved billions of dollars in energy costs. Globally, 33,000 kilotons of CO2 were avoided...

by   JOE WARD A growing and dynamic city like Boston needs ample housing construction to keep up with the constant stream of new residents. And while the demand for housing in the Boston area has been sky high, developers have to get creative and aggressive to meet the city’s needs due to its size and infrastructure. In July, Boston had the ninth-most  cranes  of any city in the country, and housing permits were up 12 percent in 2017 compared to the previous year, according to the Greater Boston Housing Report Card. The construction boom is not only adding much-needed housing stock to the area, but it’s transforming neighborhoods as well as the city’s skyline. “Boston is in a growth cycle right now,” says David Goldman, principal with New Boston Ventures. “It’s a combination of the city really promoting development and housing and just Boston being a city where people want to live.” New job opportunities and business growth have helped expand Boston’s populatio...

During the next two years alone, 187 skyscrapers are expected to pop up across the globe — each of which will rise 820 feet in the air. As developers look to build taller and taller, some elevator companies are exploring ways to revolutionize vertical travel. A recent report by  Bloomberg  examined new technologies addressing speed, capacity and, in some cases, direction in skyscrapers of the future. In this video,  The Real Deal  looks at the   go-to technology  that’s being engineered by some of the world’s leading elevator firms. For the full article click here . 

Hudson Yards is on track to open next March By  Amy Plitt @plitter     Feb 27, 2018, 10:02am EST More than five years after  Hudson Yards  got its groundbreaking, the megaproject has reached another milestone: According to developers Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group, 15 Hudson Yards, the complex’s first residential building, has topped out. The building, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Rockwell Group, stands 917 feet tall—not quite hitting supertall status, but large enough to create an imposing presence. It has 285 apartments, four of which are  pricey penthouses  located at its crown, along with a bevy of  over-the-top amenities  that include a 75-foot swimming pool, a screening room, and  a co-working space  that’s essentially a WeWork for the building’s residents. The building also abuts The Shed, the megaproject’s forthcoming cultural space that’s also designed by DS+R and...

How immigrants shaped the city’s buildings and streetscape By  Rebecca Fishbein     Feb 26, 2018, 12:32pm EST The common wisdom is that New York is a city built by immigrants, its spirit and populace formed by the hordes of overseas residents who have called it home since the Dutch settled here in the 17th century. And in fact, New York was  literally  built by immigrants—some of the city’s most iconic residential and commercial buildings were designed by immigrant architects, who drew influence from their home countries to turn NYC into an architectural as well as cultural melting pot. Many of the city’s earliest architects, starting in the 17th century, emigrated from overseas, but the ones tasked with the most high-profile projects typically hailed from countries like Scotland and England, and were often highly trained. Those men, including Richard Upjohn and Griffith Thomas, earned their legacies by building some of the city’s most beautiful ...

Renovation is always a better use of resources than demolition and replacement. By  Alexandra Lange     Feb 22, 2018, 9:00am EST Does it feel like I am always yelling at you that  this plaza from 1968 , or  that building from 1983 , must be saved? It feels like that to me, because I am, because the architecture that makes New York great, giving it variety, texture, and some generosity amid the towers, is constantly under threat. I was genuinely shocked to wake up yesterday and read that the Union Carbide Building (1960), designed by Gordon Bunshaft and  Natalie de Blois  of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and occupying prime real estate on Park Avenue just north of the Pan Am Building (1963),  was going to be torn down to build an even bigger skyscraper . Principally, I was surprised that the  Union Carbide Building  wasn’t a designated landmark. The bureaucracy and strategy required to get buildings landmarked in New Yor...

While landlords like Rudin are implementing the tech, only about 20 percent of NYC office properties are built to sustain it. By  Konrad Putzier  |  February 22, 2018 02:50PM Every time a tenant enters or exits a  Rudin Management -owned property, the building notices. A sensor in a turnstile near the entrance sends a signal to the property’s operating system, dubbed Nantum. The system can sense sudden shifts in occupancy and quickly adjust its heating and air-conditioning depending on the season. Rudin launched the independent tech startup Prescriptive Data — Nantum’s creator — in June 2016. The Manhattan-based company supplies Rudin’s buildings as well as properties owned by six other landlords with its technology. (A representative for Rudin declined to name the other landlords.) The startup seems to be at the forefront of the smart building revolution underway in commercial real estate, including rental apartments. For the full article, click h...

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By  Tom Acitelli     Feb 15, 2018, 7:25am EST Move-ins have started at Somerville’s tallest building: The 236-foot, 20-story Montaje in Assembly Row. Developer Federal Realty  commenced leasing  those 447 apartments, including 26 penthouses, last summer; and also recently wrapped the building’s shared public spaces. Photos of those spaces are herein. What’s more, the wider Assembly Row has added several retailers recently, including a Smoke Shop BBQ (currently under construction) and a Polo Ralph Lauren Factory Store. And, in March, the 122-unit Alloy condo will open. For the full story and pictures click here . 

Living In By  AILEEN JACOBSON   FEB. 14, 2018 Continue reading the main story Share This Page Share Tweet Pin Email More Save When Sally Greenspan moved into a converted notions factory on West 20th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues 35 years ago, the area was industrial, she recalled, with few shops, restaurants or other residential amenities. “It was like the Wild West,” said Ms. Greenspan, 71, a retired marketing executive who came from the Upper East Side with her husband, Michael, a biochemist who wanted a quicker commute to his job in New Jersey. The area, which is often called East Chelsea — it extends from West 14th to West 30th Streets and from Sixth Avenue to Ninth Avenue, where West Chelsea begins — started becoming residential about 20 years ago. But change has been more rapid, she said, in the past several years: “We’ve seen an enormous number of young families move in. It’s been an explosion.” Older buildings have been co...

Agencies look to stop builders from using stilts to jack up heights—and prices By  Joe Anuta The de Blasio administration is taking aim at developers’ practice of stacking luxury condos atop multistory hollow spaces to achieve greater heights and more lucrative sales. Marisa Lago, chairwoman of the City Planning Commission, said at a town hall meeting last month that her office is working to change how it treats such large voids, which do not count against a building's density limit. Limiting their size could shrink the height of future towers. “The notion that there are empty spaces for the sole purpose of making the building taller for the views at the top is not what was intended” by the zoning code, she said. “We are already working under the mayor’s direction with the Department of Buildings to see how we can make sure that the intent of the rules is followed.” For the full article, click here . 

By  JANE MARGOLIES Mariele Marki lives on the fifth floor of  House 39 , a new rental building on East 39th Street in Manhattan that is awash in indulgent amenities. The apartment building also has a perfectly nice elevator that stops on all 36 floors. But after walking her dog, Ms. Marki, a marketing consultant who is 26, often takes the stairs to her apartment — starting with the sculptural staircase that spirals up the double-height lobby to the second floor, where she can grab a coffee from the lounge before continuing up on the fire stairs. “Every little bit helps keep you a little more fit,” she said.  Hammams and wine cellars top many amenity lists for new developments, but staircases? In upscale buildings that go all out to pamper residents, a feature that requires exertion might seem counterintuitive. But over a century and a half after the modern elevator was invented, many developers, architects and designers are bringing staircases to the fore, to add ...

By  Carl Campanile New York’s public building costs are the most expensive in the world partly because taxpayers are subsidizing skyrocketing pension and health care costs for the construction industry, according to a study released on Monday. State and local governments paid double the 17 percent inflation rate to cover “prevailing wage” costs for union construction workers on public works projects from 2007 to 2017, said the report by the Empire Center for Public Policy. A lot of those funds covered fringe benefits, which zoomed even for laborers — the building trades’ lowest- paid workers — from $22.74 to $40.60 an hour. By comparison, wages for those same workers jumped from $34.89 to only $41.50 an hour. In New York, fringe benefit costs now account for 41 percent of prevailing wage compensation, double the 20 percent for all private construction workers, the study said, citing U.S. Labor Department data. “The law effectively provides a taxpayer bailo...

Make the grade energy-efficiency without breaking the bank By  Udi Meirav Does your commercial building deserve an A, B or worse for energy efficiency? By 2020, you won’t have to guess. New York City buildings of at least 25,000 square feet will then be  required to post their energy grades at public entrances. The requirement is a key part of the city’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050. Indeed, buildings account for more than two-thirds of the city’s energy use, and commercial buildings are responsible for 30% of New York’s greenhouse-gas emissions. The regulations pose a dilemma for commercial building owners because, traditionally, achieving higher energy efficiency has required substantial up-front expenditures. This has put them in the difficult position of choosing between saving money and saving the environment. The good news is that new technologies are empowering them to do both—while incurring zero or even negative incremental ...

BY KATHARINE SCHWAB Every year, more than  530 million tons of construction and demolition waste  like timber, concrete, and asphalt end up in landfills in the U.S.–about  double the amount of waste picked up by garbage trucks  every year from homes, businesses, and institutions. But what if all of the material used in buildings and other structures could be recycled into a new type of construction material? That’s what the Cleveland-based architecture firm  Redhouse Studio  is trying to do. The firm, led by architect Christopher Maurer, has developed a biological process to turn wood scraps and other kinds of construction waste like sheathing, flooring, and organic insulation into a new, brick-like building material. Maurer wants to use the waste materials from the thousands of homes in Cleveland that have been demolished over the last decade or so as a source to create this new biomaterial. Now, the firm has launched a Kickstarter to tran...

By  Tim Logan Part of the old Boston Globe building is set to get a dramatic upgrade as a swanky food hall and hangout space, the centerpiece of an overhaul of the newspaper’s former headquarters in Dorchester into a hub of creative and tech offices. That’s the vision the development firm Nordblom shared when it filed detailed plans Tuesday to redevelop the massive complex on Morrissey Boulevard. The company wants to repurpose the nearly 700,000-square-foot building as a “multi-tenant innovation park,” aimed at companies that want to be close to the core of the city but don’t want to pay downtown rents. Ultimately, the developer envisions a mix of companies big and small, and thousands of jobs, in a building that has sat empty since the Globe moved downtown last year. Read more here .