High Performance Building Guidelines

by the City of New York Department of Design and Construction, in collaboration with the Trust for Public Space, April 1999. Order from City Store by calling 212/669-8246. Available (in August) online at:

www.ci.nyc.ny.us/buildnyc/. Spiral-bound, 144 pages, $25.

High Performance Building Guidelines is designed to serve the very specific role of bringing green design awareness into the City’s building procurement process. The document, however, is well designed and general enough to serve as an excellent resource for anyone working to incorporate environmental principles into commercial buildings.

The main body of the

Guidelines is in Parts Two and Three, labeled “Process” and “Technical,” respectively. Part Two includes chapters on process issues specific to New York City and on the green design process in general. Part Three is organized into the basic environmental categories (Site Design, Energy, Indoor Environment, Materials and Products, Water) but also includes three chapters on post-design topics: Construction Administration, Commissioning, and Operations and Maintenance.

Throughout the

Guidelines, clear graphic design and a system of icons and symbols provide layers of information that can easily be skimmed for certain key ideas, or studied more carefully for other details. Each chapter contains a series of “Performance Goals,” under which are “Technical Strategies” for reaching those goals. Brief examples from actual projects are sprinkled throughout, offering both inspiration and more detail on the strategies. Cartoons are also used liberally to illustrate certain points while lightening the mood. In the margins, a series of symbols indicate who benefits most directly from the strategy (the facility itself, the City, or society in general), and whether the benefits occur during building operations, construction, or occupancy. Finally, the Performance Goals are summarized with specific measurable or verifiable targets for use in contract documents.

These

Guidelines were subjected to an extensive internal and external peer review process, and the benefits show. Even though the book is relatively short, it covers a huge range of material and provides additional references as well. On the downside, we were surprised not to see more attention given to stormwater management (it is addressed together with water use in landscaping), and there is no mention at all of elevators, which are major energy consumers in tall buildings. Also, the reference lists omit some resources that would have been useful to readers, while listing others of questionable value.

Ease of use was clearly a priority for the Department of Design and Construction, as they included at the end a Glossary, a list of acronyms, and an index. Supplementary appendices are not included with the book but are provided instead on the Depart-ment’s Web site (see above). The staff at New York’s DDC have accomplished a great feat in making such a wealth of material so accessible. This book is sure to become a popular reference for designers and municipalities alike. Hopefully it will also succeed in influencing the way that buildings are built in New York!