Dattner Architects' design for Battery Park City Parks Conservancy earns LEED Platinum under the Commercial Interiors Program

The new 40,500 s/f Battery Park City Parks Conservancy Maintenance Facility consolidates the Conservancy's extensive maintenance activities, is home to the organization's educational and art workshops, and provides office and meeting spaces for the organization's 100 plus employees. Located in Battery Park City (on Battery Place at the base of the Visionaire) a new, sustainable high-rise residential tower, the maintenance facility was designed by Dattner Architects to exceed the Battery Park City Environmental Guidelines. The LEED Platinum facility uses a combination of low tech, passive strategies and high tech equipment to reduce the energy costs by 35% and water consumption by 47%. "Dattner Architects has designed a number of benchmark green projects, but working with the Conservancy and with this unique program, was especially rewarding," said John Woelfling, AIA, LEED, principal, Dattner Architects. A double-glazed exterior wall insulates the space in the summer and captures solar energy to heat the space in the winter, and it will double as a naturally-ventilated circulation spine. A four-story atrium is capped with "Big Ass Fans" and louvered skylights. A building management system controls the fans, louvers and lighting throughout the building. It includes geothermal heating and cooling, radiant heating panels, recycled denim insulation, and bamboo millwork. The Battery Park City Parks Conservancy Maintenance Facility achieved a LEED Platinum rating under the Commercial Interiors Program.