New York City Hall could be come one of the city’s largest providers of solar energy, if Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plan to install as many as 158 solar panels on its roof goes through, according to the Post. The green upgrade is part of the nearly two-centuries-old building’s $100 million makeover, and could help the building achieve silver LEED status. If the maximum 158 panels are put in place, they would comprise about a 10th of the roof’s total 20,000 square feet. Although the panels won’t “zero out the [traditional] electricity” consumption in the building, Ken Vogel of Long Island-based Solar Power, said, they will help encourage environmentalism among New Yorkers. “It’s more symbolic than anything else,” Vogel added. [more]

The NYC Green Codes Task Force, which the mayor and city council sepaker convened to make the city’s building code more environmentally-friendly, unveiled 111 recommendations yesterday, which await review by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Council Speaker Christine Quinn. WNYC talked to task force member Ashok Gupta, who is also director of energy policy at the Natural Resources Defense Council, about the proposals and their possible impact.

To make the Empire State Building more attractive to potential tenants,
the building’s owners decided to go green, spending $120 million on
environmental improvements. The renovation of the building is expected
to take 18 months, and includes retrofitting all 6,500 windows, adding
insulation to radiators and upgrading the building’s lighting, cold
water and ventilation systems. The owners expect an annual energy
savings of $4.4 million, which would pay off the new technologies in
three years. The building’s renovations have already attracted
construction firm Skanska as a tenant. The building’s management helped
the firm install bike racks and other energy saving details at its
offices. [more]

Sales have slowed at environmentally friendly buildings since January, according to statistics compiled by Streeteasy.com and New York Magazine. At the Laurel, at 400 East 67th Street, the Lucida, at 151 East 86th Street, and the Edge in Williamsburg, there have been no buyers since the beginning of the year. Sales were slow in the first quarter at Toren in Downtown Brooklyn, though the building has had three apartment sales in the past three weeks. Sustainability is not a deal-breaker for most condo buyers, said appraiser Jonathan Miller, especially when they are more focused on their jobs and the state of the economy. [more]

While some buyers in eco-friendly buildings are looking for green
living, many others end up in green buildings by chance. One resident
moved into the Kalahari in Harlem because of the newness, and not the
greenness, of the building, and a couple moved to a LEED-certified
building on Roosevelt Island because of the views. Another couple
needed more space and wanted to be close to Wall Street, and ended up
signing a lease for a two-bedroom at the Tribeca Green. “Green
construction means delivering a significantly higher-quality building,”
said Russell Albanese, president of the Albanese Organization, who
built the green buildings Solaire and Visionaire. “All the features are
almost too much to tell the buyer at first. But as they live in the
building, they become informed.” [more]