Green architecture – Crosby Street Hotel, New York

The Crosby Street Hotel has been awarded LEED Gold certification and it is verified by the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI). The 11-story hotel has nearly 7,900 square meters (85,000 square feet) with 86 guest suites, a 99-seat screening room, meeting rooms, a guest library, drawing rooms and a lounge, as well as a lobby bar and restaurant.

Located in the heart of SoHo, it is the first LEED Gold certified hotel in Manhattan. Designed by Stonehill & Taylor Architects, The Crosby Street Hotel was built on what was formerly a parking lot between Prince and Spring Streets. It is the first hotel outside of London for the premier luxury London hotelier, Firmdale Hotels, and their co-founder Kit Kemp designed the hotel’s interesting interiors.

Compared to other projects we wrote in the green architecture series, this building isn’t too energy efficient. Compared to a baseline building, it is 11% more efficient regarding energy use. Water efficient landscaping reduces water usage by 50%, and the use of potable water efficiency is over 20% less water compared to a baseline building.

Habitat restoration of 25% of the previous site is restored with native plants planted on landscaped spaces and green roofs. There is a true woodland meadow planted with over 50 varieties of native flowering plants such as Butterfly Weed and False Indigo. Meadow Suite looks directly onto it and many of the rooms on the east side of the hotel have a great view of the meadow through their floor to ceiling windows.

The kitchen garden is situated on an unused space on the hotel’s 12th rooftop floor. It’s an urban vegetable patch managed by the hotel’s head chef and supplies the hotel with fresh seasonal produce such as melons, blueberries, tomatoes and herbs. There is also a Tudor style chicken coop with 4 Araucana chickens which produce unique pale blue eggs.

The green surfaces on the building reduce the heat island effect to minimize impact upon microclimate, human and wildlife habitat. Over 60% of site is considered open space, and the air inside the rooms is filtered with efficient filters before being brought into spaces. The no smoking policy increases the overall air quality inside the building. Since they are located in the city centre, they promote a reduction in automobile usage through the provision of bicycles.

The builders practiced recycling of demolition and construction waste instead of dumping it in a landfill. They also used building products that incorporate recycled content materials and usage of regional materials extracted and manufactured within a 500 mile radius. Aside construction activity pollution prevention, they also minimized the usage of materials that are odorous and harmful to the well-being of installers and occupants, including low emitting adhesives, sealants, paints, coatings, carpets and wood materials.