555 Greenwich Street

urbs was engaged in reviewing the current design for 555 Greenwich Street and providing input based on Swedish best practices on low-carbon buildings.

urbs’ team has reviewed the current design and the energy model, and re-modeled it to get a better understanding of how the systems and buildings were interacting. Based on the findings, urbs has created an energy concept where heating and cooling elements should be incorporated within the building structure to activate the building’s own thermal mass to provide uniform temperature throughout the building. This eliminates noise from fans, cold drafts and allows the building to use 100% fresh air.

We have suggested a low-temperature heating and high-temperature cooling system that can drastically reduce energy consumption, reduce the size of air handling units and ducts and make systems simpler. This would free up space, reduce both initial costs and life cycle costs. Our design’s fundamental approach was to create a circular energy system that is fully integrated with the building’s form and structure.

The suggested energy concept shows 76% reduction in GHG emissions compared to the first annual building emissions limits, nearly 60% reduction in comparison to building emissions limits for calendar years 2030 through 2034.

More information can be found on the client’s website below.