Green Roof Delivers Sustainability Benefits for Javits Center
Sourced from FacilitiesNet
The challenges involved in maintaining and operating the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City were immense from the start. Since it opened in 1986, the 1.6-million-square foot facility has been one of the largest and busiest convention centers in the United States. A five-year, $463 million renovation project completed in 2014 upgraded a host of the facility’s systems, and it added one component that put the facility on the path to sustainability – a green roof.
Now, a $1.5 billion expansion completed in 2021 has taken the convention center’s sustainability to new heights – literally – and it has made the challenges of maintaining and operating the facility that much more critical.
Planning for Sustainability
A 6.75-acre green roof on a facility the size of the Javits Center was a monumental undertaking, but the installation turned out to be such a success in terms of sustainability, energy savings and public relations that Javits officials decided they wanted to take on an even larger sustainability challenge, one that also represents expanded challenges for the center’s facilities department.
“We have teams of carpenters, electricians, engineers, painters, plumbers and cleaners who care for the Javits Center throughout the year, ensuring all of our equipment is working effectively and efficiently," says Kenneth Sanchez, the center’s senior vice president of facilities management. “Spanning 3.3 million square feet over six city blocks, the Javits Center is considered the busiest convention center in the United States, hosting a wide range of trade shows, conventions and special events, and the heavy use of the building demands that our teams work diligently to maintain the structure in optimal working order.”
The facilities department staff already maintaining the original facility and its 2014 expansion obviously would be responsible for the post-installation inspection, repair and maintenance of the center’s expansion and its rooftop sustainability components. So it only made sense that the staff also played a central role in the 2021 expansion’s design and installation.
“The facilities department played a critical role in the design and installation of our 6.75-acre green roof and the recent expansion, which added 1.2 million square feet of state-of-the-art space to the convention center,” Sanchez says. “Our staff worked closely with architectural firms and contractors to ensure the additions were completed in a timely fashion and the new features integrated with the existing building in a seamless fashion.”
As if a $1.5 billion expansion is not complex enough by itself, the COVID-19 pandemic complicated it further. The Javits Center served as a COVID hospital in March and April 2020 and treated almost 1,100 patients. Then it opened as a vaccination center, distributing more than 646,000 vaccines. The expansion was completed by May 2021, and the rooftop officially opened in September 2021. The center resumed events following the COVID-19 pandemic in the fall of 2021.
From the Living Architecture Monitor
