INTERNATIONAL EXAMPLES URBY Enhances Staten Island Waterfront Development 2017 MFE Awards, Best Reuse of Land, Merit: URBY Staten Island By Lauren Shanesy PROJECT DETAILS Location: Staten Island, N.Y. Developer: Ironstate Development Architect: Minno & Wasko Architects and Planners Builder: AJD Construction Co. Opened: December 2016 Number of units: 571 Unit mix: Studios and one- and two-bedrooms Rents: $1,735 to $3,310 Situated on the Hudson River, the onetime Navy Homeport on Staten Island’s North Shore sat vacant and unused after it was decommissioned. In 2004, architects and developers came together with the city of New York to begin to revitalize the underutilized site and turn the former 35-acre base into its own compact city. Minno & Wasko Architects and Planners designed URBY Staten Island, a 571-unit, mixed-use development that includes 35,000 square feet of retail space, restaurants, walking paths, and parks. A second phase will provide 328 additional residences when completed. When repurposing the site, specific zoning requirements meant the team needed to provide a public walkway that connected a new, public riverfront esplanade with the surrounding retail while offering direct views to the water. The two buildings of four and five stories each surround Navy Pier Court, a private drive between the buildings with two 10-foot-wide, tree-lined sidewalks, bordered by seating and plantings. The project’s buildings, which are designed with metal, glass, and Corten steel in a nod to the site’s past as a warehouse district, sit in two large “U” shapes around the landscaped area, which provides views of Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Verrazano Bridge, and New York’s Upper Bay. The project isn’t short on amenities that make the development feel like an all-encompassing neighborhood. In addition to the public outdoor spaces, URBY has a bodega, a communal kitchen with flex spaces for cooking classes, an entrance café and coffee shop, a two-story fitness center, a pool, and an urban farm above the parking garage. The site is adjacent to the Staten Island Railroad Station and a four-minute subway ride to the Staten Island Ferry. VINE Promotes Green Design and Location 2017 MFE Awards, Mid-Rise, Grand: VINE By Barbara Ballinger PROJECT DETAILS Location: Hoboken, N.J. Developer: Bijou Properties Architect: Marchetto Higgins Stieve Builder: Tishman Opened: February 2016 Number of units: 135 Unit mix: One-, two-, and threebedrooms Rents: $3,040 to $4,500 Both developer Bijou Properties and architect Marchetto Higgins Stieve are serious about making projects sustainable. Two developments in Hoboken, N.J., which has evolved from a city of gritty industrial warehouses and factories to hip millennial magnet, show this firsthand. After developing Edge Lofts near the city’s 14th Street ferry, which became the first LEED Platinum residential building in the state, the two companies went on to develop VINE on Hoboken’s western edge, considered the final frontier of the city’s transformation. The 11-story building has gained LEED Gold certification, one reason being its location adjacent to a stop on the 9th Street-Congress Street light-rail system. There’s also a shuttle van. “Residents don’t need a car,” says architect Dean Marchetto, FAIA, founding principal of the architecture firm. To take advantage of New York City views, his firm designed the building with a tiered plan. It also made the façade unique by altering the exterior brick and window pattern, which gave rise to a variety of interior layouts rather than cookie-cutter designs. As part of its effort to give back to Hoboken, Bijou constructed a large plaza at grade that the neighborhood can use and devoted square footage within the building to a restaurant and daycare center. Architect Colleen O’Keefe, design director with Bijou Properties, gave the interior an industrial chicness with exposed concrete in the stairwell and lobby. Sustainable choices include bamboo on the flooring and walls, a vegetated roof planted with sedum that absorbs water, and a co-generation system that provides backup if a power failure occurs. Though a car isn’t necessary at VINE, residents who own one enjoy automated parking technology that evokes the Jetsons’ fantasy world. The building won a Green Apple Award in 2015 for its environmental practice. Sustainable Seattle Project Shows Off Green Design The LEED Platinum building reduces energy costs by 30%. By Lauren Shanesy Sustainable design doesn't have to be expensive. A new, 60-unit, 50,000-squarefoot mixed-used residential building in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, Cove is designed to a LEED Platinum standard and incorporates features that translate to a 30% energy savings. While there may be a perception that a green building will cost developers much more than a traditional one, developer James Wong, co-founder and CEO of Seattle-based Vibrant Cities, disagrees. "A lot of developers shy away from sustainability and green building because they think it's an additional cost that doesn’t have benefit," he says. "I would say that it doesn’t necessarily have to cost more if you put sustainability into the design from the beginning. Also, often, if the building meets code, you may qualify for a LEED certification already." Here, Wong and Michelle Kinsch, associate principal of Seattle architecture firm Tiscareno Associates, discuss how this green project came to life without breaking the bank. What are the specific green features of Cove? Kinsch: The windows are triple glazed, which makes a big difference in energy performance. They also have the added benefit of sound attenuation, so residents don't hear the traffic noises from the busy neighborhood inside their unit. Heat and air-conditioning are provided by highefficiency mini-split heat pumps, and the units have efficient plumbing fixtures and Energy Star– rated appliances. Wong: There are also a wide variety of solar panels on the south side of the building that serve as awnings and generate more than 14.3 kilowatts of electricity—enough to power the common areas. If there's additional electricity the common areas didn’t use, it goes back into the grid and we get a credit against our power bill, which gets translated to savings for the tenant. Kinsch: Residents also have access to a 3,000-square-foot green roof, complete with seating and lush vegetation. The plants allow natural filtration of stormwater, prolonging the roof’s lifetime and flushing cleaner water into the city’s waterways. Additionally, the upper level uses sustainable materials like bamboo and prefinished cement boards to create an undulating, wavelike pattern that contrasts with the ground floor’s design. What are the benefits to an owner of developing a green property? Wong: In addition to saving cost on energy performance, we're attracting a crowd of potential tenants who care about the environment and care about sustainability. $3B Mixed-Use Development to Transform Tampa Waterfront The 53-acre Water Street Tampa will include two sister residential towers connected by a large commercial space. By Kathleen Brown Tampa, Fla.–based developer Strategic Property Partners (SPP) has begun construction on Water Street Tampa, a $3 billion development just off Tampa’s Old Water Street, that will include over 9 million square feet of residential, commercial, hospitality, educational, and entertainment space. SPP is a joint venture between Bill Gates’ investment fund Cascade Investment LLP and local businessman Jeff Vinik, owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team. Their 53acre, mixed-use development is centrally located on the Garrison Channel, near Amalie Arena (home to the Lightning), the Tampa Convention Center, Tampa Bay History Center, and Florida Aquarium, among other downtown attractions. Pedestrian-oriented, the development will add parks and public areas leading to the Tampa Riverwalk and waterfront.Tampa-based developer Strategic Property Partners (SPP) has begun construction at Water Street Tampa, a $3 billion development just off Tampa’s Old Water Street which will include over 9,000,000 square feet of residential, commercial, hospitality, educational, and entertainment space. SPP commissioned architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF) to design two sister residential towers of 21 and 26 stories, respectively, for the property. KPF’s first Tampa project, the towers will offer 3,500 rental and for-sale condominium residences and will be connected by a large commercial space and car park. Exterior terraces lining the towers will offer residents natural lighting as well as views of the city and Hillsborough Bay. Perforated metal screens at the podium level will both shield the open-air parking and angle light toward the façade. "Creating a building that makes a person feel better by interacting with it was inspiring to explore,” says Trent Tesch, KPF design principal. “Wellness, and how the building is going to be built, is our focus—we integrate authentic materials and texture that are both super refined and rough, which will make this project look distinct and unique.” According to SPP, Water Street Tampa will be the first community certified "WELL," a health and wellness standard currently being developed by the International WELL Building Institute. The development is also pursuing LEED certification for individual buildings. Two hundred million dollars worth of infrastructure, including roads, public utilities, and central cooling, is currently being built at Water Street Tampa. KPF’s towers will be started in 2018, as part of the first of three phases of vertical construction, and are slated to be complete by the end of 2020, according to the developers. The entire Water Street Tampa development— comprising, in addition to the 3,500 residences, 2 million square feet of office space; 1 million square feet of street-level retail, cultural, educational, and entertainment space; and two hotels with over 650 rooms—is expected to be finished by 2027. The developers expect 23,000 residents, professionals, or visitors at Water Street Tampa daily. LOCAL EXAMPLES Megaworld Corp. – McKinley Hill Megaworld’s many developments abound all over the metro. However, its biggest township development McKinley Hill is a nominee for Lamudi’s 2017 Best Mixed-Use Developer award of 2017. As a mixed-use development, the area was created with the live-work-play-learn principle in mind. When people hear the name “McKinley Hill,” they almost always automatically associate it with a high-end lifestyle. The nearly 50 hectares of land within Fort Bonifacio in Taguig has astounding shopping areas as well as an impressive professional hub that investors local and abroad keep flocking to for the past few years. The growing McKinley community features 36 high-end residential towers as well as an exclusive village, catching the eye of some of the most elite investors from the country and from elsewhere around the world. Its office towers, foreign embassies, international schools, and shopping complexes are attractive and boast of a fun lifestyle. The area’s PEZA-certified cyber park also embraces many companies, especially those in the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry. Some of the biggest names in the McKinley Hill include 3M, Thomson Reuters, Colgate-Palmolive, and Hewlett-Packard, to name a few, further establishing its IT park as one of the leading names in the country.
