Click the picture for a virtual tour of the property
Monday, March 31, 2008
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Green Construction Makes Its Way Into Local Planning And Design - Hamptons.com
See the article on the project at Hamptons.com
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Happy St. Patrick's Day
Happy St. Patrick's Day!!! It is a momentous occasion that on this, the "greenest" day of the year we begin construction on what will be the "greenest" building on Eastern Long Island...
Plant Rescue
We are rescuing 50 feet of mature major privet as well as other trees that were originally on the property. Most will be replanted on site, the ones that don't have already been donated to other property owners. Though we are not seeking a LEED credit for these, people have previously gotten Innovation in Design credit for Plant Rescue.
Construction Waste Recycling
As per LEED NC MR 2.1-2.2 Construction Waste Management the demolition of the existing structure will be divided into concrete, metals, and other construction debris so that it can be properly recycled and thus avoid heading to the landfill. Our demolition and recycling is being handled by Guillo Contracting.
Asphalt Reuse
LEED NC MR 3.1-3.2 Materials Reuse requires that a portion of construction materials be of reused content. Here you can see the beginning of a pile of crushed asphalt taken up from the existing parking lot. It will be ground up and used as a permeable substrate for the crushed pea stone surface of the new parking lot, which will be lined with the Belgian block seen in the background, also a reclaimed material as posted earlier.
Hay Bales
These are just some detail shots of the hay bales and silt fencing keeping our construction site contained.
Friday, March 14, 2008
It Has Begun!!!
Today we started clearing the land in preparation for the demolition of the existing building on Monday.
As is required by LEED-NC SS P1 Construction Activity Pollution Prevention, we must keep any construction debris from running off the site into the town sewer system or into any natural water sources so silt fences and hay bails are being put in place all around the perimeter of the property while we work.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Belgian Block
As far as LEED is concerned, any time you can reuse a material rather than producing new material, you are doing the environment a service. My first development project was in Binghamton, New York. The Depot Lofts is a mixed-use adaptive reuse project with 9 residential lofts and 2 commercial spaces. I bought the buildings back in 2003 and after some negotiating with the city, I bought the street in front as well. It turned out to be one of the last remaining cobblestone streets in the city. We had to tear it up to put down a new water main and I wanted to put a lot of the cobblestones back. In the end we couldn't use them all so we just stacked them on palates and they waited for some better use.
When we started working on Watermill Ateliers it hit me that we could reuse these block to line the parking lot as well as making rain permeable walkways across it to allow water to naturally filter into the ground.
I'll post pictures once we install them.
Friday, March 7, 2008
The Building Permit
WE GOT IT!!!
After more than 2 years of working to get the permit we finally have it and will be breaking ground on the Watermill Ateliers on March 17th.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Construction Update
We have decided to begin this blog right before construction starts because the story of what it took to get to this point would be very tedious to relay in its entirety. The short of it is that we have been working through the permitting process of the Town of Southampton and Suffolk County for over three years now just to be able to finally build. We are very excited to be able to start this project after all of this time and effort and are looking forward to breaking ground in the next two weeks. Look for pictures of the demolition soon.
LEED
The LEED Pro, LLC is our LEED Consultant for this project. We decided a long time ago that we were going to make a commitment to green building and we have. When we complete Watermill Ateliers, we hope to achieve LEED Platinum status under the LEED for New Construction rating system. We are shooting for 53 out of 69 points. The project will be 42% more efficient than a comparable base case structure, and save over 100,000 gallons of water each year. The parking lot is made of crushed pea stone so as to allow for storm water drainage and filtering as well as eliminating any heat island effect. Every main area of the project will have direct views to the outside and 97% will receive direct sunlight. We have also dug wells to utilize a geoexchanger for heating and cooling. These are just some of the ways in which Watermill Ateliers will be better for the environment and the health and happiness of its occupants.
The Project Sign
Everything requires approvals in the Hamptons, especially signs, and it can takes weeks or even months to get it done. We did and here it is...
Affordable Housing
The Hamptons are in desperate need of affordable housing since many of the people that work there can't afford to live there, much like New York City. Unlike New York City there is very little incentive for people to build affordable housing in the Hamptons and give up the potential for multi-million dollar homes. Meisel Development is very community and environmentally conscious. The original design of the project only had office space but once we realized that there was unused space in the second level of two of the three buildings, we saw an opportunity to provide a community benefit in the form of six affordable apartments. These units will be 600 sf each with one bedroom. They will include all utilities, internet and even phone since the building will be so efficient as a green building.
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