Green Roofs on Apartment Buildings
by Justin Thomas, Virginia on 10. 9.06
Battery Park City is a neighborhood in New York City, that houses no less than three remarkable green apartment buildings. First came the Solaire, then the Tribeca Green, and the latest is the Verdesian. The roof of the Tribeca (above) is irrigated with harvested rain water, and recycled water from the apartment's toilets.
Nearby is the Verdesian, which stands 26-stories tall, and atop the building is a green roof, which also serves as a rooftop park for the apartment's residents.
The Verdesian also has heliostats mounted on the roof. These 2.5 m-diameter, computer controlled mirrors track the sun's movement to reflect light down to the otherwise-shaded park below.
There is a Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) system on the east, south and west walls of the mechanical bulkhead at the top of the building.
See also Eco-Living in NYC at The Solaire
Very cool buildings, but one of them, I think the Solaire, is also infamous for having "locally sourced" granite from New Jersy that was shipped to China for finishing, then back to NY to be installed... c'est la vie.
Uh, I don't think that recylced toilet water is "greywater," at least not the last time I checked.
Most people probably can't afford these pretty apartments, but do not despair! Even if you live in deep brooklyn making a move to a big city with great public transport is an excellent way to decrease your energy consumption by leaps and bounds, while having MORE fun (probably)
My point here is that ANY apartment in Manhattan is "green" in the sense that it will use less heating oil, consume less land and allow you to move and shop more efficiently.
My building has no green roof. But, maybe ... someday. (but probably not the building is over 100 years old and I don't think it could carry the soil load... there has GOT to be a way to retrofit this...
toilet water is called black water because of the wast it handles.
Gray water comes from showers, sinks and washing machinnes.
its highly unlikely they are using blackwater unless they are using some sort of filtration that i haven't heard of yet?
These are the details:
The 25,000 gpd (95 m3/d) onsite wastewater treatment, storage and reuse system is located in the building's basement, and includes a series of common-walled, cast-in-place, concrete tanks. The first step in the process is a collection and settling tank where large solids are removed. The wastewater then flows to a bioreactor which contains active bacteria used to consume or digest the biodegradable waste.
ZeeWeed® ultrafiltration membranes are immersed directly into the bioreactor, which eliminates the need to settle solids, and significantly decreases the necessary size of the treatment tanks. Permeate pumps are used to gently pull the wastewater through thousands of membrane fibers. Each fiber is filled with billions of microscopic pores that physically block suspended solids, bacteria and viruses from passing through—guaranteeing an exceptional water quality and clarity on a continuous basis.
The treated water is then further disinfected by ultraviolet lights. Any remaining color and odor is removed using an ozone generator that also provides a residual disinfection during water storage. The storage tanks serve as reservoirs for the treated water, which is used as flush water, make-up water for the cooling towers and for irrigation.