All images courtesy of Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office on Flickr

Mayor Eric Adams on Sunday announced over 100 park projects halted due to the pandemic will resume work this spring. The city has invested $417 million in NYC Parks to break ground on the 104 projects, which is a 142 percent increase in new park projects compared to 2021. According to a press release, more than 86 percent of the new projects implement sustainable features like LED lighting, rain gardens, new trees, stormwater capture systems, and the use of recycled materials. Roughly 62 percent of these new projects are being installed in neighborhoods classified as underserved and are expected to be completed by the summer of 2023.

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Courtesy of Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office on Flickr

Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday announced a milestone has been reached in a major project designed to improve quality of life and tackle the affordable housing crisis in Southeast Queens. Construction has begun on “Habitat Net Zero,” a project that will transform 13 run-down buildings owned by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) into 16 green homes for affordable homeownership.

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Image courtesy of Equinor

Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday announced an agreement that will transform New York City’s South Brooklyn Marine Terminal into one of the country’s largest offshore wind ports. As part of the deal made with the city’s Economic Development Corporation, Equinor, and the Sustainable South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, L.P., the terminal will become a power interconnection site for the Empire Wind 1 project, with heavy-lift platforms being built on the 39th Street Pier for use as wind turbine staging. The terminal’s transformation will help the city meet its climate goal of having 100 percent clean electricity by 2040.

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Photo of Riverside Park by Momos on Wikimedia

All five of New York City’s borough presidents are calling on Mayor Eric Adams to improve the city’s green spaces by planting one million new trees by 2030. During a joint press conference on Monday, Borough Presidents Mark Levine, Antonio Reynoso, Vanessa Gibson, Donovan Richards, and Vito Fossella introduced the “Million More Trees” initiative, a program first started by former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and completed by Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2015. Also included as part of the initiative is the goal of increasing the city’s tree canopy to 30 percent by 2035.

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Rendering courtesy of Trinity Financial

A housing lottery opened this week for 248 mixed-income apartments in the Bronx. Located at 425 Grand Concourse in Mott Haven, the 26-story mixed-use, mixed-income development is designed to meet Passive House standards and is one of the largest to be built in the United States. New Yorkers earning 30, 40, 70, 100, and 130 percent of the area median income are eligible to apply for the units, which range from $362/month studios to $2,676/month three-bedrooms.

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Rendering courtesy of Wordsearch

Sales launched this week at a new luxury condo building in the Flatiron District that utilizes biophilic design principles. Designed by COOKFOX Architects, Flatiron House, located at 39 West 23rd Street, incorporates nature into its appearance, including planted and irrigated Juliet balconies and a lush central garden. Developed by Anbau Development, Flatiron House contains 44 total residences, priced between $1.98 million and $13 million.

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Photo by Carlos Oliva from Pexels

Every year in New York City, tens of thousands of migratory birds are killed after being drawn from their flight paths by the city’s artificial light. To combat this, State Sen. Brad Hoylman and Assembly Member Patricia Fahy last week introduced the “Dark Skies Act,” a bill that aims to prevent the deaths of migratory birds and reduce light pollution. The bill would require the majority of non-essential outdoor lights to be turned off, covered, or switched to motion sensor activation after 11 p.m. Alternatively, lights could be set to shine downwards.

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Image courtesy of Photographer/Mayoral Photography Office on Flickr

After 16 years, the 27-acre waterfront park planned for North Brooklyn has taken a major step towards completion. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Monday that the city has allocated $75 million of its budget for the construction of the final piece of Bushwick Inlet Park. The funding will be for work on the next phases of the park, which begins with the demolition of the CitiStorage warehouse that sits on a parcel of land the city purchased in 2017 but has yet to rebuild.

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Image courtesy of Diane Bondareff/AP Images for The Battery Conservancy

One of New York City’s largest sustainable parks officially opened last week. Following a 25-year initiative, the Battery Conservancy on Thursday opened the Battery Playscape, a 1.5-acre playground that triples the size of the former park and aims to reinforce sustainable practices in its users through its eco-friendly design and features.

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Image courtesy of Local Office Landscape/Bernheimer Architecture

After more than 40 years of planning, the construction of  New York City’s first net-zero community is moving forward. L+M Development Partners, the Bluestone Organization, and Triangle Equities have agreed on $30.3 million in financing, signaling the beginning of phase one of Arverne East, a sustainability-focused, mixed-use development project in Far Rockaway. The project will bring 1,650 new units of housing, with 80 percent of them affordable, to a 116-acre oceanfront site that has been vacant for more than four decades.

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