It seems like just in the past week the trees of New York have decided to shed most of their leaves. Around EcoBrooklyn, leaves are floating down onto our green roof and some of our projects in the yard. The smell of fallen leaves overpowers the smell of city, and it’s a welcome [...]
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The two best building systems I know of right now are the Earthship and Passive House methods. Right now Eco Brooklyn is lucky enough to be involved in two jobs that involve both systems, one a NY earthship and the other a NY Passive House. Earthship building is best for non-urban parts of the [...] I have tolerated Mayor Bloomberg because he has done some good things for New York’s ecology. He isn’t the mayor of Copenhagen, Denmark. Now that is a city worth looking at in terms of ecology and social planning. But Bloomberg could have been a lot worse. His plan NYC is an acceptable plan, the bare minimum [...] When I was 25 I paid a lot of money to have my fortune read from a palm leaf. Turns out a wise man way back when in the depths of Eastern India scratched down on palm leaves the destiny of every soul who was to incarnate on the earth. So I tracked down [...] Eco Brooklyn recently obtained a copy of McGraw Hill’s Green Building: Square Foot Costbook 2012. Construction cost data books are intended for use by planners and builders who would like to get a quick, rough idea of how much a job might cost. I think it’s pretty cool that green building is at a point where resources like [...] Eco Brooklyn’s Gennaro Brooks-Church discusses our clay wall application. Creating a better seal on bricks and more insulation, Eco Brooklyn applies clay to walls all over New York City. Most recently we applied clay in our Harlem Passive House and in the downstairs apartment in our Brooklyn Show House. Check out this great video! [...] Here is an idea for a New York back yard. Your typical container is the same shape as your typical back yard in Brooklyn and NY. Why not put a shipping container into the earth as a cellar or underground room? [...] Here are some examples of rammed earth and rammed clay walls. We did one recently in Brooklyn and it was really cool. Rammed earth forms with cross strength braces: They call this rammed earth but it isn’t really. It is more like concrete with low levels of cement. [...] Come check out our Open House and Blowerdoor test at our Harlem Passive House renovation. When: Friday, November 11, 2011, 4:30 PM Where: 156 West 130th Street, Manhattan. The New York Passive House community is kicking off the weekend of International Open Passive House days at Ecobrooklyn’s project in Harlem. The house is well [...] I love visiting the folks at Occupy Wall Street. It is a very empowering thing. For me it feels like the seed of our first global revolution. We’ve had lots of revolutions. The French one was big. Lost lots of heads in that one. The Cuban revolution made quite a splash. But we have [...] If you live in New York city you know the summers can be hot and muggy, with humidity levels shooting through the roof. As a New York green contractor we are faced with the challenge of creating healthy and happy indoor air environments while keeping energy consumption low. So how do you remove humidity [...] As New York green contractor we feel that unwanted sound can be just as toxic as chemicals so we put a lot of work into making homes that reduce sound. We are in the soundproofing stage of our Passive House renovation in Harlem. Here the soundproofing techniques we used: Foam on the joists – foam [...] As a New York contractor we are constantly trying to incorporate the best green building techniques to New York and Brooklyn brownstones. The creative use of clay is one of our tools. We just did a another clay wall job in Brooklyn. We switched the mix up a little to make it a little smoother, [...] As a New York green contractor you learn very quickly that “natural” does not mean “good”, nor does it mean “bad”. Case in point: the mushroom. Mushrooms are some of the most beneficial human foods available. But you eat the wrong one and you will die. Not good, not bad. Powerful, yes. So the [...]
EcoBrooklyn's Green Roof EcoBrooklyn, as a green builder is not only involved with green construction, but also with other ways of incorporating environmental issues into our work. As food awareness increases, green contracting has the potential to provide us with produce that is organic and as local as you can get. Green [...] I attended last Saturday’s Occupy Wall Street march to Times Square because as a New York green contractor I feel alligned with many of the issues brought up in the Occupy Wall street movement. There was a big crowd and for the first time in my life I saw more New Yorkers than tourists [...] This week we had CUNY students come by to the green show house. One of Eco Brooklyn’s interns Michele Fonzi, who has a degree in Landscape Architecture, showed the model of our green roof she built. Above you see the side view of the green roof installation. First there is the [...] As a green design build firm in New York we are constantly looking for ways nature makes an impression on the city. Here is a literal impression. A leaf fell onto the sidewalk cement when it was wet and made its permanent mark. On 10/11/11 Eco Brooklyn, a green builder and supporter of a better America and world, went down to the Financial district to check out Occupy Wall Street. Nearly 30 days ago, a diverse group of citizens took to the street in NYC, and marched down to Zuccotti Park, formerly “Liberty Plaza Park”, placed in [...] Eco Brooklyn’s show house is now home to a beautiful new landscape which has been certified by the National Wildlife Federation as a Certified Wildlife Habitat. Nestled among many homes in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, NY this garden provides a home for a wide variety of shrubs and perennials that have invited in a number [...] On a beautiful fall day in early October, Eco Brooklyn, a New York City green contractor, took to the South Plaza of Union Square in downtown Manhattan to check out New Green City, an event hosted by GrowNYC. The event hosted many contributors, ranging from non-profits and schools to entrepreneurs, government agencies, and corporate [...] Green design is a broad term. In an attempt to narrow it down, we are looking at how green design and “universal design” or lifespan design are linked. First of all, you’re probably wondering what universal design means. Here are the seven principles that define universal design, according to North Carolina State University [...] This Friday at 2pm we will be doing a blower door test at the harlem Passive House. If you are interested in attending please let us know. Eco Brooklyn, NY Passive House Contractor
Climate Week NYC offers up to 8 events a day. And many of them relate to green building in unexpected ways. What better time of the year to let your green out? Climate Week NYC offers such a wide variety of events at varying locations and times to fit everyone’s interests and schedules. For [...] Check out this picture of our Eco Brooklyn Green Show House bee hive. We left some space in the hive and the bees filled it up with their own combs. The precision and symmetry they build the comb is really beautiful. Here is a cool article from GreenBuildingAdvisor.com. As a New York green contractor we are always looking for local green building materials, especially anything that relates to the super high efficient Passive House construction tools. These windows from Maine look really promising. New Green Building Products High-performance windows, doors, and tapes for your next [...] We are doing the flashing and installation of the windows for our Passive House brownstone in Manhattan and needed a scaffold. There seems to be a lot of confusion among contractors around what is allowed for scaffold installation. Here are the official rules for scaffold installation in Manhattan I asked around to my seasoned contractors and [...] Director of Eco Brooklyn, Gennaro Brooks-Church discusses how the Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV) will work once it is completely installed in the Passive House building. The NY green contractor is currently renovating this entire Harlem brownstone, and the addition of an ERV is a vital part of the standards that need to be met. [...] We use Citrus Solvent mixed into Tung oil to make a really great wood sealer. It works great on wood floors. Citrus solvent is a “natural” substitute for the more toxic turpentine. Citrus solvent dilutes the Tung oil and allows it to seep deeper into the wood. The solvent also acts as a drying [...] EcoBrooklyn Director Gennaro Brooks-Church, talks about the importance of salvaged materials which are crucial in helping achieve the company’s goal of zero or negative waste created and zero or negative new materials used. This is one of the main things that separates Eco Brooklyn from an ordinary NY contractor – finding floor joists, wood [...] |
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