Tudor City offers tranquil gardens in Manhattan

Tudor City offers tranquil gardens in Manhattan

Image via Wikipedia The Green Queen is making inroads into Tudor City. With her listing at 25 Tudor City Place, she's eager to help some lucky buyer put down roots in this gardened corner of Manhattan. This development contains two gardens, ...

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Solar One inspires green living in Gramercy Park

Solar One inspires green living in Gramercy Park

Image via Wikipedia As an EcoBroker, Susan Singer always looks for greener pastures when buying or selling real estate for her clients. So when she first listed the property at 4 Lexington Ave she turned to her friends ...

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Greener Greater Buildings Plan for New York City

Greener Greater Buildings Plan for New York City

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption] As part of a new series of papers regarding federal, state and local decisions to expand energy efficiency choices for consumers, Distributed Energy Financial Group (DEFG) has published a free report on New York ...

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Greenpeace Scores Greenness of IT Companies

Greenpeace Scores Greenness of IT Companies

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="210" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption] It's no secret that the Information Technology (IT) industry uses a massive amount of energy, manufacturing, transporting and just running. That's where Greenpeace's "Cool IT Leaderboard" comes in. For the the third time, Greenpeace has ...

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Paper Receipts - Are They Wasteful? (A Poll)

Paper Receipts - Are They Wasteful? (A Poll)

Image by amanders2 via Flickr As credit and debit card transactions continue their prominence in our financial lives have you ever stopped to wonder if paper receipts are wasteful? When you’re at the ATM do you opt ...

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Man putting caulk on baseboard

Image via Wikipedia

When the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 5019 : Home Star Energy Retrofit Act of 2010 – or “Cash for Caulkers” as it has become known – last month, it’s aim was to kick start construction and create jobs.

However, Cash for Caulkers also provides a great opportunity for homeowners to invest in energy saving technologies to make their houses more energy efficient. From simple things like air sealing your home to new attic insulation to more involved upgrades like the addition of a geothermal heat pump, this bill, should it pass in the Senate this summer, would enable you to get back thousands on the improvements you’ve made.

Our friends over at The Construction Blog at Software Advice have penned a nice piece that better details what Cash for Caulkers really means for consumers. As they said:

“This is great news for homeowners and contractors alike. The bill provisions $6 billion for energy-efficient or “green” retrofits. It is expected to fund renovations for 3 million families, create 168,000 new jobs and save consumers $9.2 billion on energy bills over the next 10 years.

But in order to cash in on upcoming rebates, homeowners and contractors will need to do their homework. There are 13 types of retrofits eligible for funding. Each retrofit has unique eligibility requirements and set rebate amounts. You can read the full text here.

We made it really easy to wade through the legalese. Below is a table that breaks down the 13 retrofits of the bill, along with the requirements and rebate amount for each. In addition to the requirements we listed, each retrofit must comply with Building Performance Institute (BPI) standards or other procedures to be approved by the Secretary of Energy.”

Click here to read the full article for some great tips.

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Looking east along 42d St at Tudor City on a s...
Image via Wikipedia

The Green Queen is making inroads into Tudor City. With her listing at 25 Tudor City Place, she’s eager to help some lucky buyer put down roots in this gardened corner of Manhattan. This development contains two gardens, which were planned in the 1920s by the forward-thinking developer Fred F. French, who conceived a plan for a high-rise, residential development nestled around a centrally placed, tranquil park, replete with amenities and services, and tailored to the needs of the middle class men and women flocking into the city each day.

The parks were central to French’s vision for Tudor City. While many grand residential buildings of the time were built around garden courtyards, French turned the convention inside out in Tudor City by placing the green spaces on the outside and orienting the buildings toward them. Tudor City, as is famously quoted, turned its back on the East River, which was at the time an industrial area of slaughterhouses and barge landings, all dominated by the coal-burning Con Edison plant. The pastoral tranquility of the parks were a welcomed relief from the noise and pollution along the river. They contained arbors and gazebos, fountains and tree-shaded walks, and an 18 hole miniature golf course with lighting for evening play. Tudor City was a success, and it’s buildings were renting out faster than they could be completed.

French died in 1936 but the firm he founded continued to own and manage the properties until 1972, when the Helmsley-Spear company bought Tudor City. A relentless battle by residents ensued against Helmsley’s plans to build giant skyscrapers on the open spaces. It all came to a head when a bulldozer rumbled down Tudor City Place at 6 AM on the Sunday morning of Memorial Day weekend in 1986. An alert resident saw it coming and sounded the alarm. People poured into the street and under the leadership of community leader John McKean, blocked the bulldozer from entering the parks and then managed to secure an injunction against the planned destruction. Helmsley finally accepted defeat.

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Solar One inspires green living in Gramercy Park

July 7, 2010

As an EcoBroker, Susan Singer always looks for greener pastures when buying or selling real estate for her clients. So when she first listed the property at 4 Lexington Ave she turned to her friends at Solar One since their offices are nearby.

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Time to put on your high water boots

June 16, 2010
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The Queen Dives In – Issue #29

June 10, 2010
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Greener Greater Buildings Plan for New York City

June 1, 2010

As part of a new series of papers regarding federal, state and local decisions to expand energy efficiency choices for consumers, Distributed Energy Financial Group (DEFG) has published a free report on New York City’s “Greener Greater Buildings Plan.”

Read the full article →

Household Appliance Electrical Use

May 26, 2010

Ever wonder which costs more to operate, a microwave or an oven? How about what product uses more energy, a computer or a laptop? A new website created by GE answers your questions about 53 electrical products in your home.

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$19 Billion in Savings from Less Driving

May 20, 2010

$19 billion each year is no small change, even for New York City. Residents of the city (there are 8.3 million in the city itself, and about 19 million in the metropolitan area) save at least this much each year due to the fact that they drive less than Americans living in other cities

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IBM Conducts Smarter Buildings Survey

May 12, 2010

IBM recently released a Smarter Buildings Survey that surveyed 6,486 office workers in 16 American cities about how green and environmentally friendly workers believe their offices are. The survey questions covered building automation, security, elevator reliability and conservation practices.

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Greenpeace Scores “Greenness” of IT Companies

May 6, 2010

It’s no secret that the Information Technology (IT) industry uses a massive amount of energy, manufacturing, transporting and just running. That’s where Greenpeace’s “Cool IT Leaderboard” comes in. For the the third time, Greenpeace has measured the environmental efforts of the world’s 15 leading IT companies using three primary metrics

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