NYC's architect-led Climate Advisory Board takes shape - Archinect

View of the Manhattan skyline at night. Image courtesy of Wikimedia user Kai Pilger

Jill Lerner, Managing Principal at Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF), Stas Zakrzewski of Zakrzewski + Hyde Architects, and Arup Principal Fiona Cousins have been appointed by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to the city's 16-member Climate Advisory Board to help steer the city's implementation of an ambitious climate agenda for new and existing buildings.

The board helped to enact Local Law 97, the emissions reduction-focused Climate Mobilization Act (CMA) passed in 2019 that was initially billed as banning all-glass skyscrapers. de Blasio has since walked back from those aspects of the plan, but the initiative's potential to reshape the city's built environment remains.

Local Law 97 creates, for example, a new Office of Building Energy and Emissions Performance (OBEEP) housed within a new Office of Sustainability at the city's Department of Buildings. The OBEEP, according to the legislative text, will be directed by a yet-t-be-named "registered design professional."

The plan will require that 100% of unoccupied roof spaces be dedicated to solar panel installations or green roof elements, while also requiring that all buildings above 25,000 square feet post energy efficiency grade signs similar to those used to highlight the health code compliance of eating establishments. The initiative is targeting a 40% reduction in aggregate greenhouse gas emissions generated by covered buildings by 2030 relative to 2005 emissions.

In an announcement published on the KPF website, Lerner writes, “Local Law 97 will accelerate our own city’s ability to achieve carbon neutrality, and will greatly impact how new buildings are designed and how existing buildings are retrofitted. I am honored to serve on the Advisory Board for this critical issue, contributing the perspective of a design practice that understands and appreciates how the built environment impacts our wellbeing and our planet.”

Arup's Cousins stated in a city news release, “Local Law 97 sets a strong, new context for reducing NYC’s carbon emissions, in particular through work in existing buildings, which have long proved difficult to modify and upgrade to reach their best possible performance. It reinforces New York’s leadership position on climate mobilization across the nation and it will be important to set rules that create the best possible results through clarity of objectives and coherence with other regulations and I am looking forward to engaging in that work."

Other members of the advisory board include real estate professionals, social justice advocates, labor union representatives, other building-related experts.