Sunday, October 17, 2010
Bank of America: Setting the Standard
In One Bryant Park, located in New York, the Bank of America has invested 20 billion dollars in their new skyscraper that could be the beginning of a energy revolution. This exponentially high cost is due to the buildings green features. The Bank of America Tower is said to be one of the most efficient and environmentally friendly business buildings in the world.
There are many aspects in the design of The Bank of America Tower that makes it the standard for commercial businesses worldwide. New York City gets approximately 4 feet of rain each year, and this tower captures that rain, and uses it throughout the building. Additionally, the building creates ice at night, when energy consumption is low, and uses that ice to cool the building during the day. It is projected that the building will reduce water and energy consumption by 50%. A 5.1 megawatt co-generation system is going to take on 70% of the tower's yearly needs, and around 3.4 million gallons of water will be conserved.
Not only does the this ingenious design help the environment, it also benefits the people inhabiting it. The building will filter clean air throughout the building, as well as allow a large amount of sunlight into working areas. This results in happier, healthier employees and customers. With happy employees, productivity is increased.
The Bank of America could be starting a trend of green integration into commercial buildings. By spending 20 billion dollars, they are making a statement, and that is that a change must take place around the world. We cannot revert our old ways. We have to start new, fresh, and enthusiastic if we want to make a difference in the direction buildings are headed. One building alone will not change the world, but it can provoke ideas and actions that could result in a revolution of green architecture and engineering that could make that change. The Bank of America is taking a step, and taking a stand.
http://environment.bankofamerica.com/article.jsp?articleId=Tower
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This is a really cool building. It's interesting that some of the stuff costs so much. It seems like it wouldn't really be that much more expensive to have a building with bigger south-facing windows or a rain water catching system. Something that is kind of baffling is that in the video no one talked about the money they would save by cutting 50% of both their water and energy use. I wonder how long it will take for the building to pay for itself or at least make up the cost difference between it and a building of the same size without any "green" technology.
ReplyDeleteI am willing to bet that this trend will continue as prices of green technologies keep falling. It will soon be a worthwhile financial return that is within the usable lifetime of the building and of course the positive press is always appreciated by big corporations. As we all know buildings are the largest consumer of energy in the world and anything we can do to lessen their impact would help greatly.
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