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Metropolis - Queens Botanical Garden

Metropolis - Queens Botanical Garden

Metropolis - Queens Botanical Garden

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""""""'""'"""'"'IIi'1I1jjiOne 01 New York"'slesser-knownbotanical gardens emerges as aleade.. in sustainable design.In 1999, when the <strong>Queens</strong> <strong>Botanical</strong> <strong>Garden</strong> began planningits new visitors' center, the LEED program that is now the currencyof the green-building movement was still a nascent tool. New YorkCity, meanwhile, was in the process of creating its own guidelinesfor "high-performance" buildings. Especially in the realm of publiclyfinanced projects, the era of green architecture was just dawning.Now the newly opened $14 million visitors' center and administrationbuilding, designed by BKSK Architects, is on deck to receivea piatinum LEED rating, making it one of the city's first structuresin that exalted category. Moreover, two years after the passage oflocal law 86, which requires many new city buildings to receiveSilver, Gold, or Platinum ratings, the 16,000-square-foot <strong>Queens</strong>structure "is showing people that it can be done," says John Krieble,who heads the Department of Design and Construction's sustainabledesignunit. "It's one thing to talk about it; it's another thing to seeit here in three dimensions, working."Krieble, who inherited the city's green-building program fromHilary Brown, its founder, says his group is currently advising on 40buildings. But that's just the beginning: Mayor Michael Bloomberg'sblueprint for future development, dubbed PlaNYC 2030, containsambitious environmental goals, for which the <strong>Queens</strong> building isboth trailblazer and laboratory. For city officials charged with makingthe mayor's vision a reality, the <strong>Queens</strong> project ("demystifies LEED and green building."Its effects are also being felt beyond the hallsof government. Unlike other green city buildingssuchas the LEED-certified NYC Office of EmergencyManagement, in Brooklyn, by Swanke HaydenConnell Architects-the <strong>Queens</strong> facility is open tothe public. And it makes lessons in sustainabilityeasy to grasp. On a,wet day visitors can watch raincollect on the gull-shaped roof over the outdoorThe <strong>Queens</strong> BDtanical <strong>Garden</strong>'s new visitDrs' center andadministrative building, designed by BKSKArchitects,edges the urban landscape Dn Dne side and the BS-acregarden Dnthe Dther.


The small cantilevered meeting room[above) off the director's office hassliding glass doors that can be openedto the elements. "It feels like a treehousein there," Krevlin says.continuedfrompage80 strengths is showingthat "environmental initiativescan generate aesthetic richness."Eight years ago, making the building green was only one of thegarden's priorities. Another was responding to <strong>Queens</strong>'s diversitytheborough is a melting pot, with particularly large Asian andLatino communities in the neighborhoods surrounding the garden.Some 75 percent of its visitors speak a language other than Englishat home. Every morning a large Chinese contingent uses thegrounds for the meditative martial art Tai Chi."We thought those were two very different missions," Krevlin says,recalling her initial response to the cultural and e!J.vironmentalmandates. But as the design process got under way, garden officialsbegan meeting with community members to learn about their cultures'responses to landscape. "Every time we had an event thatyear, we had drawings out, and we would talk about the ideas andget people's input," says Jennifer Ward Souder, continuedonpage118Local Tai Chi groups [left) practiceon the grounds daily. The Wedding<strong>Garden</strong>(above left) hosts 85 ceremoniesa year..i a'iḤ". :I' .:!c>. .'~Ji! SIH'..,G' e'.~,I~ilE. ..~1 .a ..:,


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A GARDENBLDDMSIN QUEENS1continuedfrompage84 director of capital projects. "And what we found out wasthat every culture had some significant relationship to water." Soon the gardenwas looking at ways to incorporate water features into the design of thenew builliing. Souder, Krevlin, and the garden's executive director, SusanLacerte, realized that the very features that would draw residents could alsobecome exemplars of sustainability. If water represents continuity and cyclesof life, recycling technologies give new meaning to those ancient concepts.IIWe'rean environmental organization,"Susan Lacerte says. Hlfwe're not goingto [build green], who is?"Circle178The <strong>Queens</strong> <strong>Botanical</strong> <strong>Garden</strong> has its origins in a horticulture exhibit inthe 1939 New York World's Fair. In 1963, Robert Moses moved it to a 39-acresite near the fairgrounds and gave it a banal beige-brick administrationbuilding. Even worse than the building's design was its location: directlyinside the pedestrian entrance on Main Street, a bustling <strong>Queens</strong> thoroughfare."When you looked through the main gate, the first thing you saw was abad building that blocked your whole view of the garden," says Souder, alandscape architect who was one year out of grad school at the University ofMichigan when she was hired in 1998.Souder's first major responsibility was to develop a master plan for thegarden. She brought in Conservation Design Forum, of Elmhurst, Illinois,and Germany's Atelier Dreiseitl, whose plan-not surprisingly-called forscrapping the old building. Ashok Bhavnani, a civic-minded architect thenserving on the garden's board, pushed to make the replacement structuregreen. "We're an environmental organization," Lacerte says. "If we're notgoing to do it, who is?" Of course, a manifestly green building would helpdistinguish the <strong>Queens</strong> garden from its better-established Brooklyn andBronx siblings.Because the project would be largely funded by the city, it had to be builtunder the auspices of the Department of Design and Construction (DOC). Atthe time, the DOC had a program, created by Brown, then its assistant commissionerand design director, to make new city buildings models of sustainability.But the DOC stipulated that the garden, a pilot project under theprogram, choose an architect with whom it already had a requirements contract."We had little choice of who we hired," Souder recalls. "We got very,very lucky," she says of BKSK, one of the firms on the department's list.BKSK, a 40-person Manhattan outfit with a nearly even mix of residential,institutional, and commercial clients, had recently completed a playgroundat the New York Hall of Science-the children's museum just across FlushingMeadows Park-in the process making itself known to the DOC. BKSK'slack of green4Q.ilding experience wasn't a problem. In fact, one of Brown'sgoals at the DOC was to mainstream sustainable practices by having generalistfirms design green buildings. To be sure, the team (which includedJulie Nelson, Paul Capece, Gerry Smith, and Dirk Hartmann) had a lotto learn, not only about sustainability but also about the workings of citygovernment. For example, the building was subject to Wicks Law, whichrequires each subcontractor on a project costing more than $50.000 to enterinto a contract directly with the client (rather than with continuedonpage121


A GARDENBLDDMSIN OUEENScontinuedfrompage118a general contractor). Accomplishing that was tricky ina green building-the scope of each company's work had to be defined precisely,but the results had to interconnect. (The gray-water system alone involved theefforts of a landscaper, plumbing contractor, and structural engineer working inconcert.) In the process, the architects-and the DDC-gained valuable experiencein facilitating collaboration while satisfying prohibitive regulations."I think certification is important,"Souder says, "but I also think that theprogram isn't perfect."Meanwhile, Souder applied for grants from agencies like the New YorkState Energy Research and Development Authority. Along with capital, thegrants provided a morale boost. "It helped to be able to say, 'It's not just akid out of grad school pushing for this,''' Souder says. "There are city andstate programs." Bhavnani, Lacerte, Souder, Krevlin, and Brown formeda close-knit team, with Brown remaining involved in the project as an adviserand cheerleader long after she had left the DDC. (Sh~now runs the consultingfirm New Civic Works.)One of the project's greatest assets was Souder's desire to look beyondgreen labels. For the brises-soleil, BKSK had selected ipe, a Brazilian woodof unusually high density. But the fact that the wood was certified by the ForestStewardship Council wasn't enough for Souder. "I think certification is important,"she says, "but I also think the program isn't perfect." Satisfying herselfabout the wood's sustainability, she says, would have required "visiting theforest myself and seeing how it's managed." ,But had she visited and come away impressed, she still would have beenreluctant to use a tropical wood. "I don't feel it;s necessary to ship somethingaround the world," she says. "Especially since this is a pretty importantarchitectural element that people might want to replicate."Finding a replacement required months of research into the density androt-resistance of North American woods. Mter talking to hundreds of people,Souder eventually settled on black locust. "It was harvested on Long Islandand milled in Pennsylvania, and so far it's doing the job just fine," she says.She plans to closely monitor the wood's performance and, true to form, willshare the results with anyone who asks.Souder also learned that LEED's point system can have drawbacks. Someparts of the building have carpeting-designed by William McDonough and. made of recycled material-because LEED bestows a point for the use of"sustainable" flooring materials. Without the checklist, the offices mighthave had no carpet, Souder says-surely a greener option.For BKSK the project wasn't a moneymaker; according to Krevlin,the DDCfee structure didn't begin to account for the length or complexity of the project(or the number of consultants that had to be brought in). But the projecthas given BKSK the credentials to take on other green projects. "It was agreat gift to the firm," Krevlin says.More than that, it was a gift to a city determined to lessen the environmentalimpact of its buildings. And it was a well-timed gift at that. Completed.just asNew York was announcing its ambitious plans for 2030, "It has," Krieble says,"become a very important symbol." 0 www.metropolismag.com0METROPOLIS February 2008121

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