The Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park

Cook + Fox Architects

42nd Street and 6th Avenue
STATUS: Under Construction
COMPLETED: 2008
SIZE: 2,000,000 sq ft
# COMMENTS: 10

Cook+Fox

Gensler

Cline Bettridge Bernstein Lighting Design

The Durst Organization

Articles

Streets Closed After Glass Panel Falls 52 Stories
08/12/2008 CityRoom

More on the Falling Glass at Bank of America Building
08/13/08 Gothamist

Events

Panel Discussion: Collaboration and Green Design
01/28/2008, 5pm to 6pm, Center for Architecture, 536 Laguardia Place

Project Showcase: The Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park Exhibition Opening
01/28/2008, 6pm to 9pm, Center for Architecture, 536 Laguardia Place

Documents

2005 Sustainability Report
Bank of America

External Links

newsroom.bankofamerica.com
Bank of America

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“In many ways, the environmental crisis is a design crisis. It is a consequence of how things are made, buildings are constructed, and landscapes are used. Design manifests culture, and culture rests firmly on the foundation of what we believe to be true about the world.” --Sim van der Ryn, architect and theorist, 1996

Under the growing pressure of the climate crisis, how we design, as well as what we design has become a critical issue today. Governmental agencies and private organizations such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) are addressing concerns about the impact of traditional design and building practices on environment and are encouraging green design with programs such as Energy Star and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). Nevertheless, for significant change to occur the architectural community as a whole must embrace sustainable design as an ethos and as the starting point of design—not as added value. The new Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park, designed by Cook+Fox Architects and a substantial team of engineers and consultants, and developed by the Durst Organization and Bank of America, is an example of how the design of tall buildings can be fundamentally rethought, and how a building can serve the client and the planet with equal efficiency and respect.

This Project Showcase explores the Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park as a living ecosystem governed by the elements Light, Air, Water, Fire and Earth. These primary forces, when thoughtfully addressed as integrated and sustainable systems, contribute to a substantial reduction in the environmental impact of tall buildings as well as increased worker health and productivity. Anticipating a LEED platinum rating, the highest level of sustainable design recognized by the USGBC, the crystalline faceted 54-story tower is at once both an iconic corporate presence and an embodiment of the hopefulness and creative spirit of the green design movement. Rather than providing the answer to “what is sustainable design?” the Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park can be seen as a suggestion of how we might design greener, smarter, more environmentally-friendly buildings.

Ultimately, this exhibition asks each of us to do better, to look more deeply at how architecture can preserve and engage natural systems and infrastructure, how it can respond to users, and how it can give back to the earth and ensure a healthy planet for future generations. Architecture has always been long on manifestos, but often has come up short on real-world solutions. We may not have this luxury much longer. The Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park encourages each of us to find new ways to think about design and the relationship between what we build and how we live, and to continue to redefine sustainability with the rich diversity of ideas, methods, and technologies emerging from the green-design movement.

Project Showcase

EARTH

“The city is in many ways the greatest energy saving device man's ever created. There's no better model for energy conservation than putting people close together.”

--Paul Goldberger, Architecture Critic for The New Yorker, 2006

The design of the Bank of America Tower at One B… more

EARTH

“The city is in many ways the greatest energy saving device man's ever created. There's no better model for energy conservation than putting people close together.”

--Paul Goldberger, Architecture Critic for The New Yorker, 2006

The design of the Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park addresses the daily circulation of workers into and out of the city’s public transportation systems, strengthening the critical relationship between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the city infrastructure with the addition of a new subway entrance at 42^nd and the Avenue of the Americas and a below-grade pedestrian walkway linked to the Times Square station. The tower also engages the history of the site by incorporating the landmarked façade of the Henry Miller Theatre into the base of the building, remodeling (including many original architectural details) and upgrading the theater interiors with expanding facilities and seating capacity.

FIRE

“The average American consumes five times more energy than the average global citizen, 10 times more than the average Chinese, and nearly 20 times more than the average Indian.”

--The Worldwatch Institute

An onsite 4.6-megawatt cogeneration plant significantly improves the energy-efficiency of the Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park, providing power for over 65 percent of the building’s electrical base load in-house. While traditional power generation and delivery (through “the grid”) results in 73 percent energy loss and 27 percent usable energy, on-site cogeneration produces 77 percent usable energy and only 23 percent lost energy. Also minimizing the impact of the tower’s impact on Manhattan’s power grid is the thermal storage system located in the building’s cellar. . Forty-four tanks, holding nearly 5,000 gallons of water each, use the excess electricity from the cogeneration plant to produce and store ice in the evening. This ice is then used during the day to cool the building, thereby dramatically reducing peak daytime electrical demand loads on the city.

WATER

"There is a water crisis today. But the crisis is not about having too little water to satisfy our needs. It is a crisis of managing water so badly that billions of people - and the environment - suffer badly."

--World Water Vision Report

Designed with rainwater recapture as a primary function of the building, the entirety of the building’s roof is used as a giant stormwater collector, capturing 100 percent of the rainwater falling on the tower. Taking this kind of thinking one-step further, excess ground water, which would typically be pumped out of the foundation and into the city’s storm system, is pumped into the building’s storage system. The harvested wastewaters are then combined with the steam collected from the cogeneration and air conditioning systems and treated slightly, before being used as grey-water for the building. The water management system, in conjunction with waterless urinals and low-flow fixtures, reduces the amount of potable water used by the building by approximately 50 percent—over 10.3 million gallons of water annually.

AIR

“It’s not about saving the planet. The planet will survive all of us. Actually, that’s the problem. The planet will get on just fine without us.”

--Mark Wigley, Dean of the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, Columbia University, 2007

The design of the Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park aims to provide the highest level of indoor air quality possible with use of an advanced air filtration system that will remove 95% of particulate matter in conjunction with carbon dioxide monitors that automatically adjust the amount of fresh air needed at any given time. Also contributing to the building’s indoor air quality and user comfort is the building’s under-floor displacement air ventilation system that inverts the usual “blast of cold air” from above, as tempered air moves up from the floor level, flushing contaminants from the breathing zone. Heat from people and office equipment creates a thermal plume that naturally draws air from the floor to the ceiling return, creating a more efficient and comfortable work environment with a more consistent temperature in the occupied zone.

LIGHT

“Public illumination, like technology generally, seemed to have its own forward momentum. More was always better. In that assumption, the modern age seemed to offer unlimited promise…Could there be such a thing as too much light?”

--John Jakle, architectural historian, 2001

The principal challenge in illuminating an all-glass structure is the intrinsic quality of glass—transparency—in that there is nothing to light. To solve this problem, the lighting design team for the Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park created a system of LED cove lights, in the area of the double curtain wall, for the tower’s occupied floors (21-51). These cove lights, hidden beyond occupant sight lines, produce bands of cool light while reflectors in the coves project light towards the outer curtain wall, illuminating the ceramic frit and bringing the glow to the façade. The tower’s nighttime lighting program respects both the environment and natural resources with its restraint and its energy-efficiency.

LEED

“We realized that this was not just an environmental approach but it was an intelligent approach and a much better way to build buildings. And that's why everything we've done since then has been—we don't really call it environmental anymore, we call it smarter, more intelligent way to build.”

--Douglas Durst, Co-President, The Durst Organization, 2006

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), first introduced by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) in 1998, encourages the development of high-performance, sustainable buildings through a point-based rating system awarding four levels of certification—Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. This rating system has brought substantial attention to the green design movement through healthy competition for higher levels of certification, but recently, has also raised concerns about the capacity of such a system to accommodate the unique conditions of each project. The USGBC, in response has developed individual LEED rating systems for New Construction, Existing Buildings, Commercial Interiors, Core & Shell, Schools, Retail, Healthcare, Homes, and Neighborhood Development, and has added “innovation” points for green design solutions not yet included in the current checklist.

HEALTH AND PRODUCTIVITY

“The very highest cost of every operative building is the people cost inside. And so if you look at the bottom line of building, keeping people comfortable and happy, whose salaries can be more than 200 times the cost of energy per unit in the operation of the building, when you look at that picture holistically, not just of what the building costs but what the lives cost inside… Those are the kinds of equations that I think argue for sustainability.”

--Carol Willis, historian and director of The Skyscraper Museum, 2006

The Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park, with its floor-to-ceiling windows with transparent glass, allows maximum daylight and views into interior spaces throughout its 54-story tower. While private perimeter offices characterize the typical tower floorplate, all-glass office fronts and low partition heights in the open plan interior offices permit borrowed daylight and views to reach all workers, which has been found to influence the physiological and psychological well-being of workers, contributing to job satisfaction and improved performance. The advantages of daylighting are also measured in the increased energy efficiency of office lighting, saving up to 75 percent of the energy used for electric lighting in a building.

Project Credits

Project Team

Architect

Cook+Fox Architects

Executive Architect

Adamson Associates Architects

Mechanical Engineer

Jaros, Baum & Bolles

Structural Engineer

Severud Associates

Geo-Technical Engineer
Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers

Construction

Tishman Construction Corporation

Interior Architect

Gensler

Light… more

How can a building respond to its environment (including you)?

“I'm curious how the line was drawn between doing the most to save energy and designing lighting for the building to "create a night time presence".”

village | 01-28-2008

+ Post Your Comments

“maybe they have used led's? they use hardly any energy.”

Glasgow

03-06-2008 | Report profanity

“by having a distinct private realm ourely for workspace, and a public realm for social life and interaction to take place. ”

New Haven, CT

03-17-2008 | Report profanity

“A building can respond positively to it's environment by respecting all natural elements. This includes wildlife, air, water, earth, etc. In order for this to happen, buildings must implement green/clean technology and be mindful of energy consumption and waste. Hopefully, there will be ways in the future for buildings to actually benefit or improve the environment that surrounds it.”

New York City

03-20-2008 | Report profanity

“Remarkable design,very futuristic yet functional......Totally away from the rectangular box that we have become accustomed. Its about time that New York gets on the map again with really innovative skyscrapers heralding in this 21st century.Skyscrapers and New York go hand in hand,this more than anything else characterizes the city.We have always been a DREAM BIG CITY and still can be.Dont let the events of 09/11 stagnate us,lets give DUBAI a run for her money,and show the Middle East and the world at large that its hard to beat us at our own game.After all this is the home of the SKYSCRAPER. This was where it all began.”

LINCOLN OLIVER

05-01-2008 | Report profanity

“Why all these banks? If our economy is in so much trouble why must we build more places to 'store' our money. And if its borrowing that we're doing; who's allowing us to sink deeper and farther into murkier matters....?

I can appreciate Times Square for what its worth; a major tourist and business section of an amazing city. Lights. Cameras. Action. But why put our name in shame-- for our visitors-- In BIG BOLD BADNESS? they know all too well they're vacationing on the very same dollar that once surpassed the need to be stored at every corner of every block of the red white and bluest of greens! ?!?!

How about a lovely simple white flag; stating our need to surrender this madness! How about a lovely note to our middle mayhem; suggesting a will to live w/ less, consume less, waste less, birth less, eat less, and last but not least BANK less!

Bless us ALL

how's Bank of Illusions sound...?”

NYC

05-21-2008 | Report profanity

“i was stationed on the island when i was in the uscg. i want the mansions and all of the origanl architecture to remain intact. all of the ameninities that are there , the pools, bowling lanes and sports feilds need to be utilized and remain intact. ”

dennis zach

06-23-2008 | Report profanity

What makes design sustainable?

“There are so many great examples in New York of adaptive reuse of older buildings, housing residences, community facilities, commerce, public spaces-- but can most of the city's modern skyscrapers be imagined as containing anything but boxy offices? "Sustainable design" should incorporate flexibility of use imagined over a long period of time.”

Brooklyn, NY

01-23-2008 | Report profanity

Who is (or should be?) responsible for sustainable design?

“Everyone!
The Client- rarely does the client approach the architect with the view of wanting the maximum sustainable building.
The Authorities- the need to set the sustainable levels for The Developer to achieve, the developer will very rarely take the inicative, as they're thinking $$
The Architect- they spend time working on the design and selling ideas to the client (usuallly the developer) for sustainability. In general this rarely happens as the architect doesnt have the fees to spend the time designing a sustainable building, (which will be refused by the client due to extra construction cost).
The User- unless the building is managed correctly by the user then the building becomes un substainable- ie. having the heating on, getting too hot and opening a window.

Therefor education in Substainability is vital.”

architecture2b.com, UK

03-20-2008 | Report profanity

“We as society are ultimately responsible for sustainable design. We have made poor decisions about energy consumption, pollution, and the climate that we now find ourselves in a crisis that demands the implementation of sustainable design. I believe that it is imperative that we start devloping sustainable buildings for not only the well-being of our planet but also the well-being of future generations. ”

New York City & New Orleans

03-20-2008 | Report profanity

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