A recently unveiled mixed-use complex located at 80-100 Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn envisioned by Alloy Development aims to embrace the coming era of sustainable building design. 

How? As New York YIMBY reports, the sizable, multi-building development is designed to bring a double-dose of alternative energy-powered buildings to the area. According to the report, in addition to bringing an all-electric 256-unit residential component to the site, the development will also include a pair of school facilities designed to Passive House standards. 

The educational facilities, which include a new elementary school as well as a new building for the Khalil Gibran International Academy, are designed by Architecture Research Office (ARO), the recent winners of the American Institute of Architects 2020 AIA Firm Award. When completed, the schools, which are being developed in partnership with the city's School Construction Authority, could become the first Passive House schools in the city.

The 38-story tower that will house the all-electric residential component along its uppermost levels will be anchored to the ground by a 10-story, 100,000-square-foot Class-A office complex and 30,000 square feet of ground floor retail, both of which are designed by Alloy. The residential levels will be heated and cooled via a network of heat pumps, energy recovery units, and heat exchangers while in-unit appliances and building-wide components like water heaters and the other climate control elements, are to be powered with electricity. Wrapped in a "high performance building envelope," the tower features a slightly stepped design and, when completed in 2023, could become the city's first ground-up all-electric residential tower. 

The building's energy recovery units, according to the design team, are poised to repurpose 75% of the exhaust air generated by the complex in order to keep heating loads down. Inside the residential units, kitchens will come outfitted with induction burners and other electric appliances, as there will be no natural gas installation on-site.

“This is a full block development, and we want to make this the most sustainable block in Downtown Brooklyn,” Alloy co-founder and CEO Jared Della Valle tells Curbed. 

The school facilities located beside the mixed-use tower will feature triple-pane windows, daylight exposure for all of the classrooms, and a highly insulated building exterior, according to building diagrams published by Alloy. In addition, the buildings are designed with "thermal-bridge-free construction, reduced heating and cooling systems, and heat recovery ventilation systems," according to the Alloy Development website.  

Jonce Walker Senior associate with Thornton Tomasetti, the engineers providing the project with Passive House and Climate Mobilization Act consulting services, tells New York YIMBY, “As New York City looks to pursue carbon neutrality, buildings are an obvious target since they account for nearly 70 percent of the city’s carbon footprint." Walker added, "Alloy’s decision to go with an all-electric building not only eliminates the burning of fossil fuels on-site but locks them into an electrical grid that will only get cleaner over time.”