Jessica Dailey | Inhabitat New York City

Sponge Park To Start Soaking Up Pollution From the Gowanus Canal this Spring!

Designed by Susannah Drake of dlandstudio, The Gowanus Canal Sponge Park is a multifunctional public green space that would run along both sides of the canal, helping to absorb and filter surface water runoff to remediate the waterway.

6 Eco-Friendly Ways to Enjoy Autumn in NYC!

image © Ed Yourdon via Creative Common
Enjoy the Fall Foliage
As the leaves change colors and fall to the ground, the best way to enjoy the warm hues is to head to the park. But do you have any idea what trees those leaves came from? Don’t worry, there’s

14 Free Green Places to Visit During Open House New York This Weekend

OHNY was started by Scott Lauer in 2001, who was inspired by his experiences volunteering with Open House London. The first OHNY was attended by about 45,000 people and it has grown exponentially every year since, adding new places and programs each year.

Join Us Tonight At the “Healthy Food in Fashion” Gala to Benefit the City’s Youth

Join Inhabitat and Ecouterre this evening for a night of good food and good fashion — for a good cause! The New York Coalition for Healthy School Food is throwing its annual “Healthy Food in Fashion” gala to raise money so the organization can continue to …

Vegucated Documentary Follows Three Meat-Loving New Yorkers As They Adopt a Vegan Lifestyle

Vegucated follows three very different New Yorkers coming from very different backgrounds. Brian Flegel is a bacon-loving bartender who eats out most of the time; Ellen Mausner is a single mother and stand-up comedian who has little time to cook at home; and

Green Country Cottage For Sale Just North of NYC in Suffern, NY

The current owners of the small home renovated the stone cottage paying special attention to the design and creativity of both inside and out. Not wanting to expand the home’s small and sustainable footprint, they kept the structure the same size and focused

Artist Marni Kotak Will Give Birth in a Bushwick Art Gallery

From a human breast milk cheese shop to entire crocheted apartments, we’ve featured our fair share of unusual exhibits of artwork, but the latest exhibit by performance artist Marni Kotak takes the cake. For The Birth of Baby X, Kotak has transformed Bushwick’s

The Brooklyn Night Bazaar Takes Over Dekalb Market Tonight!

What more could you ask for than good food, good music, and green design? Tonight, those three things — plus a slew of fantastic local artisans — will come together for the Brooklyn Night Bazaar at Dekalb Market, the awesome Brooklyn market made from shipping

LEED-Seeking Lakeside Project Will Restore 26 Acres of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park

The highlight of the $74 million Lakeside project is the new 25,000 square foot facility that will be open to the public by January 2013. The old ice skating rink was only open during the winter, meaning that the whole area remained unused for most of the

PLANT Design Studio Creates Organic Spice & Herb Kits for Eco-Conscious Foodies

PLANT’s best selling-product is the Mobile Foodie Survival Kit. Holly came up with the idea a few years back when she was brainstorming designs that she could use while traveling. Realizing that the food in many travel pit stops — airports, train stations,

Doctors Ask New York to Study the Public Health Risks of Fracking

As New York State considers whether or not to allow hydraulic fracturing, officials have been conducting a seemingly comprehensive risk assessment, studying the effects of fracking on everything from job creation to animal habitats. But, shockingly, the study

GIVEAWAY: Win a One Year Zipcar Membership!

Thanks to our massive 24 hour public transportation system, it’s easy to live a car free life in New York City — and many of your InhabitatNYC editors and writers do just that. But sometimes, like when we want to escape the city or purchase a new couch or

New York Stock Exchange Goes Green With Installation of Super-Insulating Glass

Joining a growing list of New York City landmarks getting green facelifts, the New York City Stock Exchange has been outfitted with new, super-insulating glass that will increase its thermal performance by 60 percent. Supplier Serious Energy, Inc. fitted the

Northeast Coast Faces Pumpkin Shortage Because of Hurricane Irene

The weather is getting colder and the leaves are changing colors – autumn has officially arrived. It’s around this time that everyone’s favorite fall vegetable, beautiful round orange pumpkins, start popping up at city Greenmarkets, giving the city a

The NEW New York Block Party Celebrates Green Design Today!

Get ready, design geeks. The NEW New York block party is happening TODAY! The festival, now in its second year, is a green street festival hosted by GreenHomeNYC that celebrates sustainable building and green design. Basically, a little slice of heaven on

Planters Grove Park Designed by Ken Smith Coming to the Lower East Side

While we’re still daydreaming about the Low Line park proposed for the Lower East Side, the neighborhood will be breaking ground on another new park this Monday, October 3rd. While smaller and less fantastical (it’s above ground like a normal park), the new

Empowerhouse Takes First Place In Affordability at the 2011 Solar Decathlon!

photo © Martin Seck courtesy Empowerhouse

From the outset, affordability played a major role in every decision the Empowerhouse team made, especially because they were building this home for Habitat — they wanted the model to be able to be replicated.

Student Designers Create Eco Furniture for the NEW New York Block Party!

Created by Alex Weber, the Green Partition is part living wall, part communal seating. Using modular planters made from recycled cork board and recycled plywood, Weber created an interesting space divider that’s filled with natural life. The plants each have

Help New York Farmers Recover From Irene By Dining Out Today!

Hurricane Irene may have swept through the Northeast nearly two weeks ago, but much of New York State is still reeling from her effects. Mass flooding upstate has devastated many New York farms, completely destroying crops and abruptly shortening or ending

80% of NYC Greenmarket Farms Were Affected by Irene – Help Them Recover!

For many of us city dwellers, Tropical Storm Irene passed by with little to no consequences, but our farmer friends upstate will be dealing with the aftermath for many months to come. The massive flooding left many farmers’ crops submerged under several feet

NYC Has Lowered Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 12% Since 2005

Good news, New York! We are on track to hit the PlaNYC goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2017! Mayor Bloomberg made the announcement yesterday as he kicked off Climate Week. Our GHG levels are 12 percent below the 2005 baseline, and

PHOTOS: New Yorkers Take to the Streets to Celebrate PARK(ing) Day!

The temporary public spaces provide a breath of fresh air and much-needed relief from NYC’s crowded streets and sidewalks. This year’s participants ranged from small local business like Pillow Cafe to mega-institutions like Fordham University, with each bringing

NYC Bike Share Will Have 600 Stations & 10,000 Bikes!

New Yorkers, it is time to rejoice! The city has finally selected Alta Bike Share of Portland, Oregon to install and manage our long-awaited public bike share program. The bike share will have a whopping 600 stations, spreading from Crown Heights in Brooklyn

Empire State Building Achieves LEED Gold Certification

It’s official — the Empire State Building has been awarded LEED Gold certification. Thanks to a massive green overhaul that took more than two years, the landmark is now the tallest building in the United States to receive LEED certification. The groundbreaking

The Seven National 9/11 Memorial Designs That Will Never Be

The highly anticipated National 9/11 Memorial opens this Sunday on the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Designed by architect Michael Arad and landscape architect Peter Walker, the memorial consists of a peaceful tree-filled plaza and two reflecting pools in the exact places where the towers once stood -- a beautiful place of remembrance for the lives that were lost. Arad's design is the product of an international design competition, which produced more than 5,000 possible designs. Here, we take a look at the seven other finalists, each of which created a peaceful and inspiring memorial.