Phius Co-Founder & Executive Director Katrin Klingenberg illustrates the impact of NYSERDA's Buildings of Excellence Competition and implores readers to participate in round five.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul recently announced that 10 million in funding is now available under round five of the $68 million Buildings of Excellence (BOE) Competition.
The competition, hosted by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), aims to advance carbon neutral buildings in New York by providing financial awards and recognition for the design and construction of resilient, healthy and climate-friendly buildings. They are currently calling for applications from developers and design teams!
This truly one-of-a-kind competition advances the State’s nation-leading Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (Climate Act) goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 85 percent by the year 2050.
Phius teams and Phius Certified buildings have been part of the competition from day one.
I like to think of those early teams as catalysts. In round one of the Building of Excellence Competition, teams could choose which energy efficient program they wanted to go with as long as it was one of the qualifying programs identified by NYSERDA. Right out of the gate, 40 percent of all awarded projects chose Phius certification as their path of qualification.
One of the high-profile projects from those early rounds now proudly serves affordable residents in the Bronx: 425 Grand Concourse. Developed by Trinity Financial and designed by Dattner Architects, it is a stellar example of what the competition was able to deliver.
Shortly before the winners of round four were announced this spring, I had the opportunity to tour this outstanding project and experience beautiful spaces of the highest quality of life and health. I was truly impressed by this building – the skyline of Manhattan looking stellar from the roof garden.
An affordable high-rise, its design and construction team developed this project for an additional cost of 1.7 percent over a comparable code baseline building while saving 40 percent of total energy use. This project, as well as the many other Phius Certified BOE projects, demonstrated that Phius certification delivers for everyone, and developers can no longer afford not to do it.
The results are so striking that in the last round (round four of the competition) all project teams committed to passive building certification! It was an incredible programmatic success for NYSERDA, Governor Hochul, and of course for the many newly minted passive building renters who get to enjoy the comfortable, healthy and affordable spaces!
We at Phius are ecstatic about the success of the program and the leadership demonstrated by the design teams, developers and policymakers involved. The Buildings of Excellence Competition has paved the way for the acceptance and embrace of climate neutral cities.
With this blog, we’d like to celebrate all who have contributed to the competition’s success thus far and like to call on you to submit for round five!
