38-42 12th Street, Long Island City, NY

A 521,000 SF 14 - story commercial office building with 381,000 SF of Class A office space, 42,000 SF of ground floor retail and food hall and 60,000 SF of restaurant, commercial kitchen and a 700 person banquet hall. The building sits above an 83,500 Sf parking garage.

The owners had laid out ambitious energy efficient goals for the project, with the US Passive House performance as a ceiling and a net zero as the floor. In addition to low energy use and superior indoor air quality, the developers also wanted to allow for flexibility to subdivide and expand. Because of its location in Queens, the owners’ business plan relied on the shift in commercial real estate from central to hub and spoke model. The developers were seeking rent premiums by attracting high tech sophisticated credit rated tenants, to whom reduced carbon footprint and high indoor air quality were must have attributes in all of their locations.

ALTERA ENGINEERING worked closely with the architect to create performance benchmarks for the building, and to establish the scope of MEP systems. Iterative energy modeling helped informed the architect of curtain wall design and shading elements.

MEP Systems:
 Ground-source heat pumps with air to water VRF heat pumps for heat injection
 No natural gas for heating or domestic hot water
 Underfloor air distribution system with different supply air temperatures: perimeter and interior zones
 Dedicated Outdoor Air Systems (DOAS)
 Commercial kitchen exhaust
 Parking garage exhaust
 Stair pressurization and smoke purge systems
 480/277 VAC power distribution system via bus ducts and step down transformers
 500 kW emergency generator

In addition to the building performance challenges, the site is located in the flood zone and all incoming services had to be elevated. ALTERA ENGINEERING worked with ConEdison to provide spaces within the building for the incoming electric service.