http://www.nypost.com/realestate/42362.htm

NYPost Home Real Estate Guide

GREEN SCENE By CHRIS ERIKSON

HERE COMES THE SUN: A model two-bedroom in The Solaire. Photo: Rex Dittman

April 9, 2005 -- FIVE years ago, when John Messerschmidt, a project manager at Manhattan's Duce Construction, tried to start a company specializing in green building, it went out of business for lack of interest. Now, he says, "The word is out and people are asking for it."

Take the Helena, a luxe 38-story rental tower that just opened at 11th Avenue and 57th Street. The walls are covered with low-toxicity paint, the cabinets are made from compressed wheat and the floors are made from sustainable woods.

Meanwhile, at their newly built home in Mendham, N.J., Anna and Bob Gelber use cotton insulation made from recycled denim instead of from fiberglass. They have geothermal heating that draws warmth from the earth and tiles made of recycled materials. Even the beds in the vegetable garden will be made from recycled polyethelene.

These projects are part of a spike in green building that's underway in the city. It runs the gamut from eco-friendly high-rises and low-income housing to homeowners who choose nontoxic building materials for their renovations.

Paul Novack of Environmental Construction Outfitters in The Bronx, who's been selling environmentally friendly building products in the city since 1991, says his business has grown by 30 percent a year for the last few years.

And Green Home NYC, a nonprofit collective that promotes green building in the city, reports a jump in interest in their monthly forums and annual green-home tours - the most recent one sold out within a week.

"It's growing and growing and growing," says architect Gita Nandan, a member of the group. "It feels like we're at a tipping point."

Landmark green buildings that have opened in recent years include the Helena; the Solaire in Battery Park City, the city's first residential tower to get a gold rating from the U.S. Green Building Council; 1400 Fifth Ave. in Harlem, the city's first green low-income housing.; and 4 Times Square, the city's first green office building.

Robert Politzer of Green Street Construction, which does green renovations and construction, compared green building to where organic food was a few years ago - a concept moving from the fringes into the mainstream. Like others, he predicts a "groundswell shift" in the coming years, as people "recognize that a green building is a superior building."

WHAT IT IS

"Green building" is an umbrella that covers two interrelated concepts. One is to be as earth-friendly as possible by using sustainable materials (think of using bamboo, which grows quickly, instead of trees, which grow slowly) and recycled materials, and to reduce power and water use by employing measures like solar and geothermal heating, high-efficiency lighting and plant-covered "green roofs."

The other is to create a healthy living space by using nontoxic alternatives to conventional building products.

Ever walk into a newly painted, newly carpeted room and feel headache-y? That may be a response to building products that are emitting formaldehyde and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), pollutants that are linked not just to headaches but to asthma and cancer.

It's generally the idea of healthier living that inspires people to look into green building. Novack says a lot of customers come to him when a conventional renovation makes them sick.

"Every week I get a call from someone who's just had their place renovated and they're living in a motel because they can't move back in," he says. "Everything is outgassing at once, and they walk in and they get hit with it." He says urethane and carpeting are the worst offenders.

For Anna Gelber - a self-described "regular person" without a natural inclination toward tree-hugging - it was her children's asthma that first led her toward green building.

She realized that she started coughing every time she went up into her attic, which was full of exposed fiberglass insulation.

"I looked into it, and found out it's full of formaldehyde," she says. Planning on building a house, she "started looking into what's in these other products, and it was an awakening."

For their new house, the Gelbers made sure all the paints, caulks, silicones, glues and floor finishes were low- or no-toxicity; that the mattresses were made of organic cotton, and the cabinets were made of wheatboard (which doesn't emit formaldehyde, the way conventional plywood and particle board do).

BUT IS IT CHEAP?

One thing that's changed since the Earth movement of the 70s is that a growing number of these products are available at nontoxic prices, and the quality of the best ones is increasingly high. Novack (a former builder who resembles the Pittsburgh steel-mill worker he once was much more than any New Age type) said the products he sells are all as good as or better than conventional products.

"I look at: Does it work? It has to perform," he says.

Architect David Bergman says the cork flooring, wheatboard cabinets, recycled resins and glass tiles, energy-efficient lighting, natural linoleum and concrete countertops he favors in his sleek, contemporary designs are all appealing on a purely aesthetic level - allowing him to sidestep what he calls "the granola problem."

"When you can take the approach of saying it's not going to cost you more and it's not going to look worse - and may in fact look better - that's enough to convince most people. And it's healthier, too," he said.

For Perry Masco, who did a green renovation on her SoHo loft - and now does them for other people - the recycled cotton insulation, low-VOC paints and the other nontoxic materials that she favors are "a no-brainer."

The cotton insulation outperforms fiberglass and doesn't irritate her contractors, and with the fume-free paints, "the difference is like daytime to night time," she says.

"It's the intelligent thing to do, and it's better all around," she adds. "I won't go back to using anything else."

More advanced features involve a cash outlay, but those expenses can pay off in the long run. At Susan Boyle and Benton Brown's Brooklyn loft, radiant floor heating (where hot-water pipes are routed under floors), lowers heating costs, while the plant-covered "green roof" cools the building in the summer so the couple use less air conditioning. The planting also extends the life of the roof and absorbs noise, and the plants clean the air.

"It's just got endless benefits," says Boyle, who gets a steady stream of e-mails from homeowners interested in emulating her project.

MAKING POWER

In addition, their home, part of an old brewery building they spent two years renovating, has a rooftop solar panel, and when their energy use is low, the couple actually feed power back to the electric company. If you go on the right day, you can see their electric meter spin É backwards.

Meanwhile, there are an increasing number of signs that large-scale green building is catching on. In New York City alone there is 9.3 million square feet of construction (in some stage of completion) that is certified by the U.S. Green Building Council, which offers Silver, Gold and Platinum ratings.

The City Council is looking at bills that would mandate that municipal and city-funded buildings be built according to Silver standards, and expedite building permits for green projects.

In Battery Park City, large development parcels have been zoned for green building, and similar guidelines are in the works for the rebuilding of Ground Zero.

A new wing of the New York Hall of Science and the new Bronx Criminal Courthouse are also among several high-profile projects that will be built according to green specs. Ventilation in the courthouse, for example, is at people-height, so that energy will not be wasted heating and cooling the air above them.

This new interest in ecology is music to the ears of Jeremy Reiss, the co-director of Urban Agenda, a policy group affiliated with organized labor that is advocating for green building through an arm called NYC Apollo.

To Reiss, a large-scale move toward green buildings - or "high-performance" buildings, to use an increasingly favored term - could do wonders for the city, not only by reducing energy demand and lowering asthma rates, but by creating jobs.

He pictures a "green manufacturing sector" that will create new jobs manufacturing solar panels, special carpets and other eco-friendly building materials.

"There's a whole new industry that can be created," he says. "This is what's happening all around the world, and for New York City not to rise to the challenge would be a lost opportunity."

From: http://specialsections.nypost.com/news/nypost/nyphome/20050409/p44_s1.htm

Buy it

Environmental Construction Outfitters of New York, 901 E. 134th St., (800) 238-5008, http://www.environmentaldepot.com The largest business of its kind on the East Coast, ECO sells an environmentally friendly alternative for just about any building product you can think of, from paints to flooring. Owner Paul Novack, a former builder, handpicks the products he sells.

Build it Green NYC, 3-17 26th Ave., Queens, (718) 777-0132, http://www.bignyc.org This 17,000-square-foot ware house sells materials salvaged from renovated buildings, including wood flooring, doors, cabinets, sinks and light fixtures.

IceStone, (718) 624-4900, http://www.icestone.biz This outfit by the Brooklyn Navy Yard manufactures a granite-like material made from recycled glass and concrete that's suitable for kitchen countertops and bathroom vanities.

Bettencourt Wood, 70 N. Sixth St., Brooklyn (718) 218-6737, http://www.bettencourtwood.com Sells alternatives to plywood and particle board, including a composite board made of sunflower-seed husks.

3R Living, 276 Fifth Ave., Brooklyn, (718) 832-0951, http://www.3rliving.com Offers housewares made from recycled and sustainable materials, including recycled fiber rugs and welcome mats made from recycled tires.

Fire & Water, (212) 475-3106, http://www.cyberg.com Get contemporary light fixtures made entirely from recycled materials.

Green Home NYC, http://www.greenhomenyc.org No products, but a wealth of information on green building, including an "ask an expert." -C.E.