December 29, 2008—The 84-year-old building housing the Times Square Arts Center and the New York Times’ acclaimed new headquarters are stepping up their energy efficiency with help from green lighting systems.
The renovated building that is home to the Times Square Arts Center called on Comverge Inc. to perform a lighting analysis. Afterward, the New Jersey firm replaced the lighting system in a project whose costs were partially offset by incentives available through Comverge’s administration of the Con Edison Targeted Demand Side Management Program. The program provides financial incentives for energy efficiency projects in parts of Manhattan.
Comverge said its project with the Times Square Arts Center is expected to cut energy usage by an estimated 190,000 kWh and avoid more than 200,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions annually. The reductions are in turn expected to result in an energy savings of $35,000 a year that the building owners currently plan to reinvest in the community, the firm said.
The New York Times Company’s new quarters are a part of the 52-story tower of 1.6-million square feet of Class A office space on Eighth Avenue between 40 and 42st streets by the award-winning Renzo Piano Building Workshop and FXFOWLE Architects working in collaboration with several other firms.
Opened late last year, the New York Times Building is equipped with the Quantum lighting system of Lutron Electronics Co., Inc., which is delivering energy efficiency that’s 70 percent greater than projected, says Comverge.
Controls for the lighting system include light level tuning, daylight harvesting and occupancy sensing, according to Lutron. The 70 percent savings in energy costs attributed to lighting is expected to amount to a mean savings of $315,000 a year for the Times Company. The savings from the energy efficient lighting system are also expected to help prevent some 1,250 metric tons of CO2 emissions.
For more information, see the Comverge Web site.
