My trip to Battery Park City really opened my eyes to the enormous range of possibilities that New York City has to work with by which it could become a cleaner, greener, and more energy- efficient living environment. I never knew that the fountains at the 9/11 memorial reused storm water. It instantly struck me that all fountains could and should already operate in this fashion. Using clean drinking water in fountains is surely wasteful and could be put to extraordinarily better use in this city and elsewhere around the world. “The Solaire” was my next stop; I thought it was very cool, an almost completely self- sustainable building. I t was like its own little world. It seems as they have thought everything out, from the solar panels adorning the building to the in-house waste-water treatment system. The building reuses rainwater that it collects and brings a new life to grey water which is filtered and used for external everyday necessities like flushing toilets and washing clothes. The bathrooms in “The Solaire” have low-flow toilets. Next to the building there is a very nice park which incorporates green infrastructure into a visually beautiful space that is fun for kids too. Roosevelt Field Park has porous grounds which reduce storm water runoff as well.
