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Bright ‘n Green preliminary design receives Honorable Mention in the 2012 Green Dot Awards.

Located on an interior lot only 45 x 45 in size in heart of the Brighton Beach community in New York City, Bright ‘n Green is a new 6-family building with a first floor office that will serve as a model building for sustainable design. With the realization that the proof is in the pudding, once completed this building, developed and personally funded by the architect at a cost of $1.8 million ($250/sf), will act as a prototype, and will show that there is more than just tree hugging to being dedicated to environmental change: there is a substantial increase of quality of living and significant reduction in utility expenses for the end user.

Bright ‘n Green is a net-zero energy building, utilizing wind turbines and solar panels for the generation of electricity, HRVs, water reclamation systems, photovoltaic panels for generation of domestic hot water, four 100-foot deep geothermal wells for heating, R-48 insulated structural insulated panels, which also provide the exterior finish for the building, triple pane insulated windows carrying a U value of 0.17, and a Solar Heat Gain Coefficient of 0.28. Some of the groundbreaking sustainable assemblies being used here, such as the Cupolex under-slab venting system, which provides significant reductions in the volume of concrete, reinforcing steel and labor, have never been used in New York until now.
Following a strict guideline of Passive House construction, with even the foundation being insulated, Bright ‘n Green will achieve a higher standard of living for its occupants, all the while educating them on the importance of sustainable living.
The urban setting of the Bright ‘n Green project brought with it an inherent set of challenges. Site logistics such as limited access made it difficult to build using typical construction machinery. The project utilizes a panel-based system with a closed-cell polyurethane insulation in order to maximize material workability as well as high thermal performance.