Columbia University’s 17-acre Manhattanville campus in West Harlem just announced that it has achieved LEED Platinum certification under the U.S. Green Building Council’s standards for neighborhood development. Located just north of Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus in what used to be an industrial neighborhood, the area bordered by 129th and 133rd Streets, Broadway and 12th Avenue, in addition to three properties east of Broadway between 131st and 134th, will feature pedestrian-friendly streets and open spaces while connecting West Harlem to the new Hudson River waterfront park. The Manhattanville campus is the first project in New York City to score the LEED platinum rating for an entire neighborhood plan.

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Green Map, the open source system that maps everything eco, is one of our go-to resources for discovering sustainable businesses, local initiatives, and green-living resources. Now the organization has just launched a new map that’s tracking everything energy-related in New York City. Aptly called the NYC Energy Map, the new guide shows green and LEED buildings, bike lanes, solar power systems, parks, pedestrian plazas, and much more. With more than 460 places currently mapped, the NYC Energy Map visualizes the abundance of sustainable energy in New York City.

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image © Amanda Silvana Coen for Inhabitat

The iconic U.N. Headquarters is in the midst of a $1.8 billion renovation aptly named the “Capital Master Plan.” However, you won’t be seeing any construction on the Turtle Bay area buildings, as the overhaul is mainly focused on internal design. Not only are technology and security being updated with state of the art capabilities, but the Master Plan is also calling for a green cleaning, swapping out old interior designs and habits from the 1950s for new and sustainable features, with the aim of granting the building LEED Silver status.

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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 retrofit included replacing the aging building’s windows with double hung operable windows and installing an energy efficient heating and cooling system. The changes are expected to reduce the building’s energy consumption by more than 38 percent and should save $4.4 million in energy costs.

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The Brooklyn Children’s Museum, New York City’s first ever LEED certified museum, just keeps getting better. The institution is expanding its space, and they recently unveiled plans for a new transparent rooftop canopy, made out of a heat-resistant ETFE skin covered in a dot matrix fused glass material designed by Toshiko Mori Architect. The canopy is made to resemble the dappled light shining through the trees, and it will be used as a rooftop space for lectures, concerts, and other summer events.

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Brooklyn’s budding cultural district will soon raise the curtain on a new classic theater. Just Last Friday, construction started on the Theater for a New Audience, a Hugh Hardy designed flexible theater created specifically for the performance of Shakespeare and classic drama. Cloaked in a dramatic black box exterior, the LEED Silver-seeking building will seat nearly 300 and be surrounded by a gorgeous public arts plaza, creating a complete cultural experience.

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The Gowanus Canal may be a Superfund site, but that hasn’t kept the surrounding neighborhood from having somewhat of a renaissance over the last few years. New apartment buildings, restaurants, and galleries continue to pop up, and just this week, the new condo building Third + Bond, located just a block from the canal, became the first building in Brooklyn to receive LEED-Platinum certification. Designed by Rogers Marvel Architects, the building boasts locally sourced materials, double pane windows, FSC certified woods, and more.

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Public service buildings in NYC are taking a more environmentally friendly turn. City officials gathered last week to announce the opening of a new green intake center for the homeless, the Prevention Assistance and Temporary Housing (PATH) building in The Bronx. Designed by Ennead Architects, the PATH project was commissioned for the Department of Homeless Services (DHS), as part of the Design and Construction Excellence program. The building is expect to receive a LEED silver rating.

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More and more New York colleges are jumping on the green building bandwagon. Last week, Fordham University obtained LEED Gold certification for its recently built Rose Hill Dormitories, supported by $555,000 in NYSERDA incentives. The funding will also allow the University to reduce energy costs by $174,000 annually through new high performance lighting and occupancy controls, high efficiency chillers and boilers, a new heat recovery system, and numerous other energy efficiency measures.

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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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