Archinect - News

The American Bird Conservancy and Yale University issue comprehensive study on the impact of bird-friendly architecture nationwide

2023-08-14T14:47:00-04:00

A comprehensive new study linking the implementation of bird-friendly glass technology to the improvement of wildlife safety has been released by the American Bird Conservancy, offering architects what they say is a first-of-its-kind primer on an issue that still lags in the design of buildings nationally despite its popular civic and environmental appeals.

The study was published in conjunction with the Law, Ethics and Animals Program (LEAP) at Yale University Law School. Yale had previously undertaken its own Bird-Friendly Building Initiative (the study’s commissioner) and now hopes to use its findings to promote a range of policy recommendations in addition to increasing awareness as to the benefits of using fritted glass, reducing the persistence of visually uninterrupted glass curtain walls, installing window screens, and cutting down light pollution, and other practical design changes.

New York City is used as one case study, leading a group of other American cities like Alexa...

PETA calls for bird-friendly glass to be included in the Smithsonian's new Bezos Learning Center

2022-09-19T17:23:00-04:00

Animal rights group PETA has issued a strong demand to the five anonymous architects in the running to design the new $130 million Bezos Learning Center at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM) in Washington, D.C.

In response to the Smithsonian Institution’s recent unveiling of the final quintet of prospective designs, the group penned a letter in which it implored NASM Director Christopher Browne to require the use of bird-friendly glass in the final winning construction. PETA was alarmed by the use of reflective glass in the majority of the proposals and noted that the city lies along a major migratory route that could further endanger the lives of avian species who are killed by up to a billion annually as a result of similar buildings.

“Reflective glass windows lead to deadly crashes, while animal-friendly design elements such as masking films, frits, and ultraviolet patterns can save untold numbers of birds’ lives,” PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said in a separa...

NYC's architect-led Climate Advisory Board takes shape

2020-01-07T13:34:00-05:00

Jill Lerner, Managing Principal at Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF), Stas Zakrzewski of Zakrzewski + Hyde Architects, and Arup Principal Fiona Cousins have been appointed by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to the city's 16-member Climate Advisory Board to help steer the city's implementation of an ambitious climate agenda for new and existing buildings.

The board helped to enact Local Law 97, the emissions reduction-focused Climate Mobilization Act (CMA) passed in 2019 that was initially billed as banning all-glass skyscrapers in conjunction with the city's "Green New Deal" plan. de Blasio has since walked back from those aspects of the plan, but the initiative's potential to reshape the city's built environment remains.

Local Law 97 creates, for example, a new Office of Building Energy and Emissions Performance (OBEEP) housed within a new Office of Sustainability at the city's Department of Buildings. The OBEEP, according to the legislative text, will be directed by a yet-t-be-named "r...

NYC due to adopt 'bird-friendly' glass to decrease death toll

2019-12-09T11:02:00-05:00

New York City lawmakers are poised to adopt legislation requiring “bird-friendly” glass on all new construction in an effort to cut down on the tens of thousands of birds who die flying into the city's buildings every year. New York will be the largest city in the nation to require glass that is visible to birds if the measure passes. Several California cities including San Francisco and Oakland have adopted similar rules

According to ABC News, the NYC Audubon estimates that 90,000 to 230,000 birds are killed annually from flying into buildings in New York City a number only a fraction of the 1 billion that die each year around the country. The cause of death comes from the reflective glass on taller buildings, ultimately rendering the high-flyers blind from the presence of these mirrored extrusions.

The legislation proposed would require that at least 90 percent of the exterior of the first 75 feet of all new buildings or major renovations be constructed with materials that are visible to birds, such as glass with a pattern, ABC News reports.

North American bird populations are in crisis

2019-09-20T18:19:00-04:00

new research published Thursday in Science shows bird populations have continued to plummet in the past five decades, dropping by nearly three billion across North America—an overall decline of 29 percent from 1970.

Reflective, glass-skinned buildings are responsible for the deaths of over 1 billion birds each year in the United States. According to the American Bird Conservancy (ABC), buildings are the second-deadliest human-linked cause of death for birds; Only domestic cats kill a higher number of birds every year.

ABC bird experts recommend minimizing the amount of reflective glass used along building facades, avoiding the use of glass handrails and balustrades along balconies, and limiting artificial lighting at night to not confuse nocturnal migrating birds. When glass is necessary, the group recommends specifying architectural glass marked with fritted patterns and designing screens to break up expanses of glass, among many other approaches.

Architects lobby for bird-friendly glass as NYC overhauls cladding regulations

2019-09-09T20:30:00-04:00

It is estimated that up to 1 billion birds die every year in the United States due to collisions with glass facades and buildings, according to experts at the American Bird Conservancy and the Smithsonian.

This worrisome statistic has prompted municipalities to institute "bird-friendly" glass standards for certain types of buildings in cities as diverse as Minnesota, Oakland, Portland, Oregon, San Francisco, and Toronto.

New York City is poised to become the latest municipality to try and reduce the number of bird collisions by adopting new rules that would require up to 90-percent of glass on new and altered buildings to be treated with films, coatings, and other decorative elements to ensure that birds can see and avoid the expanses.

FXCollaborative's Center for Global Conservation uses bird-safe glass. Image courtesy of David Sundberg/ESTO.

As the New York City Council's Committee on Housing and Buildings continues to debate the proposed regulations, architects are speaking out...