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Q&A
Integrating climate resiliency into LPC decisions
1:20:50
·
3 min
Council Member Farías asks about integrating climate resiliency measures into LPC decisions without compromising historic character. Commissioners Angie Master, Steven Chu, and Frank Mahan respond with their perspectives on addressing climate sustainability in landmark preservation.
- Master highlights that climate sustainability is frequently considered in renovation reviews, including water drainage, solar panels, and energy-efficient windows
- Chu emphasizes encouraging resilient approaches while balancing life safety and accessibility requirements
- Mahan stresses that building reuse is the best decision for addressing the climate crisis
- He notes that architects on the commission can bring experience in integrating new technologies and methodologies for improving building performance while preserving historic character
Amanda Farías
1:20:50
Okay.
1:20:50
And then just my last question around climate sustainability as you folks are super familiar with, something we are grappling with.
1:20:59
How do you think LPC can better integrate climate resiliency like reducing emissions, keeping to our goals of retrofitting buildings into the decisions without compromising historic character?
Angie Master
1:21:12
I guess we should probably start with that.
1:21:17
Yeah.
1:21:17
Climate sustainability comes up quite a bit when we review a lot of these renovations.
1:21:25
Know, barrier free access comes up in a lot of the parks, Central Park, Prospect Park.
1:21:32
A lot of some of the stuff that they're doing is ensuring that the water drains more appropriately because flooding is an issue.
1:21:42
I know that in a lot of the historic districts, when they're doing roof additions, we're also approving a lot of solar panels.
1:21:49
And we also try to make sure that when they're replacing windows, that they're replacing with energy efficiency windows.
1:21:57
So I'd have to say that it comes up quite a bit.
1:22:01
Climate sustainability is something that's very top of mind.
1:22:04
And to the extent that we can, when they do renovate, we do discuss it and we do challenge the property owners to be sustainable.
Steven Chu
1:22:14
Yeah.
1:22:15
Would support Angie's, again, comment there is we definitely ask many questions and we do encourage resilient approach to any proposal that's coming to us.
1:22:28
But I think in terms of what the city needs, it is also, at least for myself I will speak, an understanding that buildings and occupants and certain uses do have requirements, that life safety is a big issue, accessibility is a big issue, and so that when we are looking at applications that address these issues that we keep that in mind with regard to how they may or may not affect the historic building or its fabric.
Frank Mahan
1:23:00
I might add that, you know, the climate the climate crisis is one of the greatest threats and challenges that I think this generation faces.
1:23:11
And the number one best decision you can make is to keep a building and reuse it instead of tear it down.
1:23:19
And I suspect all the architects here and on the commission have experience as I do with how to integrate insulation into historic buildings, how to integrate high performance windows into historic buildings, how to integrate resiliency.
1:23:35
There's building technology evolving quite honestly constantly with new products, new methodologies all the time and so you know architects on the commission could bring that experience to bear.
Amanda Farías
1:23:49
Thank you folks, thank you chair.