The Lower East Side Ecology Center opened their e-waste warehouse in Gowanus, Brooklyn just last week, and Inhabitat got an inside look at the new facility. The permanent facility will complement the organization's ongoing electronic waste collection events throughout the city, serving as a storage and sorting depot where anyone can bring their old computers, televisions, stereos, and the like to ensure that the precious metals, plastics, and toxins inside are properly extracted and recycled. Because of New York State's recently passed Electronic Equipment Recycling and Reuse Act, proper recycling of electronic products will gradually become law for businesses and private citizens, making spaces such as this crucial to the process. Click ahead to see more from our tour of the space and learn more about the e-waste sorting process.

 

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This week, New York’s Department of City Planning released Zone Green, a set of proposed amendments to the city’s zoning resolution designed to remove obstacles to erecting green features in the city’s built environment. These amendments, available for public comment and review, give designers, architects, and engineers greater freedom when contemplating green roofs, energy-efficient walls, alternative energy, and other sustainable measures. For years zoning impediments, especially to building envelopes and rooftop uses and access, represented one of the major hurdles to more efficient and sustainable construction projects and building retrofits in this city. Now, thanks to almost two years of work by a committee of construction and sustainability experts, these restrictions are beginning to be lifted. For a peek at the most prominent proposed changes to the city’s zoning ordinance, read on!

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With the current economic climate, middle-class citizens interested in making their lives more environmentally sustainable are hard pressed to find affordable solutions. In this spirit, GreenHomeNYC held the Green Design Challenge, where contestants were asked to design green lounge furniture that pushed the boundaries of sustainability with commonplace and inexpensive materials. Five winners were given credit to procure materials at Film Biz Recycling and Build It Green! NYC and two weeks to present their built designs at GreenHomeNYC's The NEW New York green DIY block party, held this past Saturday in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Inhabitat was involved in judging the contest, and we were on the scene to try out the winning designs before they were auctioned off!

 

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As extreme weather events become more common and unpredictable, urban centers like New York City are presented with a prime opportunity to update aging infrastructure to better deal with flooding, contamination and other ramifications of increased climactic activity. As an alternative to standard wastewater treatment plants that are not able to contain wet weather events and run the risk of incidents leading to contamination, various experts have coalesced into an urban Green Infrastructure movement to implement green infrastructure into our city’s water systems. To help achieve this, Pratt Institute’s Urban Environmental Systems Management Program and NYC Soil And Water Conservation District have joined Pratt Continuing and Professional Studies to offer Green Systems Clean Water, a two-part fundamentals course in urban Green Infrastructure.

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After much anticipation, today marks the opening of the BMW Guggenheim Lab, a design laboratory and urban think tank housed within a temporary pavilion in New York City's East Village. Designed by Japanese architects Atelier Bow-Wow, this "traveling toolbox" will be in New York until October 16, when it will be taken apart and transported to Berlin, and eventually Mumbai. Armed with multimedia capabilities to suit almost any presentation need, the structure will host over 100 free events during its time in NYC, with the hopes of instigating conversations and innovations on the design and inhabitation of cities. If the opening press event is any indication, the BMW Guggenheim Lab will be a popular destination for designers and any curious citizens over the next three months!

 

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This weekend Inhabitat rushed to the opening weekend of Brooklyn's DeKalb Market, a joint venture between specialty market developers Urban Space and Youngwoo and Associates. Since it was first announced in March, we've been anxiously awaiting the opening of the market, which was designed by architect Thomas Kosbau and built from discarded shipping containers. It has brought together local entrepreneurs into not just a market, but an outdoor community center that showcases Brooklyn's current economy and culture, while hinting at its heritage as a major manufacturing center and commercial port. During our visit on a sweltering Sunday morning, the DeKalb Market was just opening up for the day, which allowed us to get a closer look at some of the structures and talk to the vendors about their new spaces. Hit the jump to see the new digs and find out more!

 

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Natural preserves are intended to retain habitats and limit human interaction with delicate ecosystems. But here in New York City, work is underway on a new kind of preserve. Freshkills Park is currently in the conversion stages from an enormous landfill into a series of reclaimed grasslands and marshes. The second largest New York City park, Freshkills spreads over 2200 acres, and area equal comparable to Manhattan from Battery Park to 26th Street. A 2006 Draft Master Plan by James Corner Field Operations identified five different sections of the park: North, South, West and East Mounds, and a Confluence along the marshlands and creeks between the man-made hills. The design is planned around existing natural and artificial features, including infrastructure and equipment used by the NYC Department of Sanitation. After Inhabitat's tour of the park last weekend, we are excited about the progress and anxious for different sections to begin construction!

 

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The benefits of green roofs are widely known, and their popularity continues to increase in dense cities like New York. Thanks to great drainage and insulation benefits, urban gardens in the sky have sprouted at multiple projects around the city. Urban agriculture, however, has lagged behind, in part because of a lack of understanding -- the exact benefits of rooftop farms are just now being studied. But architecture schools are beginning to incorporate urban rooftop farms into their curriculum. Under the direction of Elliott Maltby and Gita Nandan of Thread Collective and recent graduate Tyler Caruso, students at Pratt's Programs for Sustainable Planning and Development are undertaking a summer Design-Build Studio in Rooftop Agriculture. Inhabitat was on the scene for their midterm design review, and we bring you more details after the break!

 

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Our extensive coverage of Section 2 of the High Line has concentrated on the aesthetic and architectural experience of the park created by architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro and landscape designers James Corner/Field Operations. The design team has received much of the credit for this unprecedented urban intervention, and rightly so, but none of it would have been possible without the innovative work by structural engineering firms Robert Silman Associates and Buro Happold. Faced with the challenge of incorporating a modular building system into an existing structure, the structural team devised simple details and quickly adapted to field conditions in order to renovate and create a park that preserves resources while seamlessly incorporating 21st century urban infrastructure.

 

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We at InhabitatNYC have barely been able to contain our excitement as we’ve followed the progress of various Passive House projects in the tri-state area. In addition to these finished works, several projects under construction in and around the city are following Passiv Haus standards, a sustainable building system which originated in Germany and focuses on reducing operating energy and enhancing comfort and air quality within. New York Passive House, like other local chapters of the Passiv Haus Society, was created to promote the movement’s standards in the local area by creating an open forum for designer, construction professionals, manufacturers, clients and others. Inhabitat recently had the pleasure of speaking with local architect and NY Passive House co-founder and president, Ken Levenson. Read ahead for the exclusive interview!

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In a city of big productions and major developments, it's easy to forget that the carbon footprint battle can often be won through the courageous endeavors of small green businesses that put their livelihoods on the line for the sake of the greater good. The Wild Project, a community theater group in Manhattan's East Village, teamed up with green roof experts Alive Structures and architects Thread Collective to create a small arts space that preserves the history of its building and community while advancing the concepts of modern sustainable design. Inhabitat had the pleasure of taking a tour of this trailblazing space from Alive's Marni Majorelle, and we caught a glimpse of an important act in the development of sustainable architecture in New York City -- and an exquisite space inside and out!

 

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The High Line, New York City's exciting and innovative renovated train track park, just opened its second section to the public today in a surprise unveiling - and Inhabitat was on the scene to bring you exclusive coverage and photos of the new extension! While initial renderings gave us clues to the project's design features, and furtive glances up from Chelsea streets revealed some details, these teasers only served to pique our excitement. After a long wait, we were finally able to experience the Falcone Flyover, Viewing Spur, Chelsea Thicket and other poetically named High Line moments, and we descended from the experience with our heads still in the clouds. Designers James Corner Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro have created an amazing piece of urban landscape, but if you haven't had a chance to make it out to the park don't fret - read on for our exclusive sneak peek of The High Line, Section 2!

 

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During New York Design Week, major exhibits that feature innovative professional design work like theInternational Contemporary Furniture Fairand the Model Citizens show sometimes overshadow smaller and less publicized events. But some of the most creative minds in design can be found in the up-and-coming ranks of design schools and their annual end of year student exhibitions. Pratt Show 2011, a comprehensive sampling of the best student work at Pratt Institute's Design School, provides the perfect opportunity to take a peek at the exciting emerging designers of tomorrow. From floating LED lights made of upcycled bottle caps to a sleek compost bin, this year's show leaves a clear message that sustainability is not just the trend of the day, but the future of design.

 

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New York City prides itself on being a center of innovation and progress, and the forefathers of this city, the Dutch, can make the same claim, especially in the field of architecture. From Rem Koolhaas and OMA to MVRDV and Mecanoo, contemporary firms from the Netherlands have consistently pushed the design envelope. It is fitting, then, that a gesture from old to new Amsterdam takes an innovative architectural form. The freshly inaugurated New Amsterdam Plein and Pavilion, a permanent gift from the Kingdom of the Netherlands to New York City via architects UNStudio, provides an outdoor living room for commuters, workers and visitors to Battery Park. The undulating futuristic pavilion is a social component, and rest area, for one of New York City's most visited intermodal transportation hubs.

 

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Landscape architecture firm and design think tank dlandstudio has proposed some of the most innovative recent sustainable infrastructure projects in New York City, including a pollution-filtering park on the Gowanus Canal and a reinventing of downtown Manhattan in the face of rising sea levels. Their latest work, set to begin construction soon, is a simple and poetic take on a green roof at the State University of New York-Purchase’s School of Visual Arts. By using a variety of blooms, the rooftop changes colors with the seasons.

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Have you ever visited a new city and found yourself eating at the same tourist-oriented restaurants or buying wasteful plastic trinkets to give to friends? Have you been frustrated by a lack of local produce, community gardens, or composting stations in your home town? In a bustling metropolis like New York, green resources and businesses can be hard to find, even though they are present in almost every neighborhood, which is why a group of local designers led by Wendy Brawer developed the Green Map System, a tool that eases the search for a more eco-friendly life. During the Festival of Ideas, we stopped at Green Map’s booth to learn more about the organization and its hopes to resolve the lack of accessibility and visibility of New York’s sustainable urban features through an open source mapping website.

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Fabrica 718′s Julie Torres Moskovitz teams up with owner and artist Heather Millstone to refurbish school desks at a cool bar and artist hangout in Greenpoint!

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Inhabitat visits Loadingdock5 Architect’s Grand Street Passive House, documenting how this energy efficient home has functioned for its residents.

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A ribbon-cutting ceremony on April 7, 2011 inaugurated Kiss + Cathcart’s LEED Silver supportive housing tower The Lee, managed by Common Ground Community.

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