LOOK INTO THE LIGHT!

"The transparent design of the New York Times building not only brings in daylight; it symbolizes the newspaper's mission to shed light on the life of the city and the nation."

(Allan Chen, Science Beat Berkeley Lab)

                Employees working with the New York Times are finally getting the opportunity to “look into the light.” With their new constructed, LEED-certified building workers are able to enjoy their workspace as well as their surrounding environment. The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) states that “LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO₂ emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.” Designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop, FXFOWLE Architects, and Gensler who provided the interior design, one unique characteristic that the NY Times Building has is its transparent appearance. The steel grid is visible from inside and out. 

Low E-Glass Diagram 

The building’s design incorporates many elements that enhance energy efficiency. The walls were completely covered with low-e glass. Low e-glass is a treated glass that conducts visible light while controlling the passage of heat. But enough about heat, these windows were distributed all throughout the building’s exterior structure allowing natural light to easily become a part of the interior environment and light up every employees workspace.

In addition, The New York Times Company implemented an advanced dimmable lighting system. The lighting system is the first of its kind in the world.  By using daylight harvesting, electricity is used basically as an extra because it maximizes the use of natural light. More than 18,000 electrical ballasts accompanied by dimmable fluorescent fixtures are used in the lighting system and each contains a computer chip allowing individual control. The levels of light can be easily changed to meet the needs of various working environments and still use the maximum efficiency with many levels of light providing energy savings of 30%.

Not only does it have an advanced lighting system but a vigorous shading system as well. The shading system is programmed to automatically raise and lower shades by using the sun's position in the sky and inputs from a massive network of sensors. This is done by either allowing light to come into the building when there is indirect sunlight or by keeping out heavy light so that glare doesn’t occur.

The daylighting and shading systems work in unison to make sure that the building becomes a comfortable environment for its workers by efficiently using natural light wherever and whenever possible.

Sites Visited:

http://www.nyc-architecture.com/MID/MID125C.htm

http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/sb-EETD-NYT-building.html

http://www.nytco.com/pdf/Environmentally_Sustainable.pdf