The New York Times Company

The New York Times Company has developed a 52 story, 1.6 Msf (gross) corporate headquarters building in Manhattan that provides a comfortable, daylighted work environment to all employees through innovative design and operations strategies that maximize comfort while minimizing energy consumption and electric demand. To meet their needs in this building, they embarked on a program of technical innovation, private-public partnership and industrial collaboration that is unique for a building owner. They created new knowledge about the building procurement process that was shared widely with other owners and design teams, and fostered the development of several new affordable, state-of-the-art energy efficient systems that through their efforts, will now be commercially available nationwide at prices that are comparable to conventional systems. They showed leadership and foresight, investing their own time and resources, partnering with NYSERDA financial assistance and engaging Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for R&D support. Their efforts fulfill the Alliance’s award criteria as noted below:

Unique contribution to energy efficiency: The Times Company project stands out in three respects. 1) They defined bold efficiency performance goals that could not be achieved readily with off the shelf solutions; 2) they put together a team and made the necessary financial investments to create new efficiency solutions, and 3) they partnered with the industry in an innovative process that resulted in new cost-effective products for their building (e.g. dimmable lighting, motorized shading) and ensured that these systems would be widely available to the entire building sector.

Quantifiable Energy Savings: Initial efficiency claims for most new buildings are normally based on simulations and comparisons to building standards, and after some period of occupancy, limited utility data. Because energy use and associated thermal and visual comfort are difficult to quantify, a unique aspect of this project is that the owner built a 5000 sf mockup of a portion of a typical floor more than a year before excavation started on the building foundation. In partnership with LBNL, and with financial support from NYSERDA, they conducted a year-long series of extensive scientific measurements in the mockup using a network of more than 100 sensors to explore alternative daylighting and shading solutions, and accurately quantified performance e.g. lighting energy savings of 20 to 70%.

Evidence that actions can be replicated and/or serve as a catalyst: It has been said that every new building design is a “research project,” but few of the lessons learned are ever explicitly shared with others. This building project was unique— from the beginning, the Times Company committed to sharing the testbed data with other owners, and worked aggressively to engage manufacturers so that new technologies and systems would be widely available. Over 400 architects, engineers and owners toured the mockup in Queens; many have since pursued similar technology solutions. Thousands of other building designers heard presentations on the results, or accessed reports and specifications from the project Web site.

Innovation and creativity: Perhaps the most innovative aspect of the program was the effort to use technical results from the mockup, and other owner interest from tours of the mockup, to advance marketplace offerings. The team converted test data into tight performance specifications for a very large procurement. This procurement, with the expression of interest from other owners visiting the mockup, motivated the technology suppliers to invest their own funds in product development to meet the innovative performance specs. Without this market pull element, the research findings from the mockup might have sat on a shelf. The new dimming ballast system and the smart motorized shade systems developed for the project are now commercially available in U.S. markets

Degree of difficulty in overcoming challenges: The project created solutions for several difficult problems. It developed 1) new daylighting controls for visual comfort and energy savings, 2) new automated, motorized shade systems, 3) a versatile underfloor air distribution system designed for comfort and efficiency, and 4) a demand response control system that integrates these three systems (and more) to provide a powerful load management capability, and 5) a co-generation system that supplies 30% of the power on site while tapping the waste heat to heat and cool the building.

Scope of work: The project was international in scope, considering the design team, key suppliers and the team that was assembled to conduct the research. It is having impact far beyond Manhattan, with the two new products developed for this building now commercially available nationwide, and the “design process” story being told across the country, most recently at an all day seminar on the project hosted by Pacific Gas & Electric in San Francisco which attracted 150 architects and engineers.

Contribution to environmental goals in addition to efficiency: A primary focus of the mockup testing was to provide a thermally comfortable, productive, healthy, glare free work environment for the Times Company’s employees.

Leadership within sector: While many claims are made by building owners, the investment, commitment and follow-through made by the Times Company is unequaled in our 30 years of building sector experience.