"greenbelt" in the Brooklyn Eagle!
On March 10, 2006, Brooklyn Eagle published a full-length feature about our development.
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Brooklyn Eagle
Brooklyn SPACE
March 10, 2006
Combining Striking Design with Green Elements
Williamsburg’s Greenbelt:
8 Condominiums, 1 Dance Rehearsal Space
By Linda Collins
WILLIAMSBURG — A new condominium development with several unique elements is now under construction on Manhattan Avenue in Williamsburg. Greenbelt, as it is being called, will demonstrate the feasibility of implementing “striking visual design and innovative green measures,” according to Derek Denckla, an attorney and . . . principal of Propeller Group, one of the joint venture partners in the development.The other JV partner, Gregory Merryweather, an architect based in DUMBO, is also the project’s designer. This is the pair’s first development project.
“We believe that Greenbelt represents a bold new direction for in-fill development in Williamsburg,” Denckla said. The new Brooklyn-based development and management firm, in conjunction with iCap Realty Advisors Inc., announced this week the receipt of $4 million in financing from Hudson Valley Bank, based in Yonkers, N.Y., to create the new development, at 361 Manhattan Ave. Plans call for the construction of eight residential units in approximately 9,650 square feet of space on four floors, atop a 4,000-square-foot ground floor artist’s commercial space. The developers will alter the existing one-story warehouse on the site.Greenbelt will be the first L.E.E.D.-rated “green” building of its size and type, according to Denckla, who said certification has been sought from the U.S. Green Building Council.
The developers took the name “greenbelt” from the ideal of the same name used by the famous architect Le Corbusier, who believed that artificial, man-made elements in the metropolis should be integrated with the environment. The name also refers to the dominant architectural design element of the façade — a sinuous belt that runs from floor to floor.
The project has already received grants from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to develop green measures and energy efficiencies and has been designated an Energy $mart Communities Partner by NYSERDA. Preliminary site work began in January, construction is set to begin later this month, and completion is anticipated for October.According to Merryweather, Greenbelt will be a departure from the usual dull brick facades and often cookie-cutter interiors of 90 percent of new development.
“Our careful attention to creating a simple and robust green design permeates each element of this project — from the hidden features, like using fly ash concrete, to the overt features, like the solar panels that fly from the bulkhead roof,” said Merryweather.
“For a relatively modest size project, we are dedicating an intense level of attention to every detail and aiming for a high level of design integration in order to set the bar higher for ourselves and our peers in both architecture and development.”
The building will generate a portion of its own electricity with solar panels on the roof, according to Alexander McFarlane of the Community Environmental Center, who helped design the green elements. These elements will include the heating and cooling system, fresh air circulation, energy recovery, fresh air circulation, and the use of EnergyStar appliances, weather-sealing and recycled building materials. Over the past year, the developers have been working with a local avant-garde choreographer, the John Jasperse Company and Thin Man Dance Inc., to purchase the ground-floor commercial space. Jasperse recently lost his loft rehearsal space in Bushwick. “We feel this is an unusual mixed-use component,” said Denckla, “and is specifically aimed at slowing the displacement of local artists who have made the Williamsburg area desirable to developers but who are often being forced out or priced out.”Propeller Group was established with a business model of “community enhancement,” according to Denckla. This means it is guided by “interlocking principles of site sensitivity, adaptive re-use, green design, mixed-use for commercial industrial retention, and a focus on architecture that preserves or creates robust and enduring aesthetics,” he said.
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