In 2007, Leonardo DiCaprio produced and narrated The 11th Hour , a documentary about the state of the natural environment. A year later, in 2008, he did something a bit more personal. He bought a $3.67 million Manhattan apartment, according to Robb Report , in a building that runs partly on solar power. That building, the Riverhouse in Battery Park City, is a 32-story condo tower with a rooftop solar array.
So what set it apart?
An Urban Land Institute case study lists the green features. Heat pumps provide heating and cooling. The riverside, too, received a double layer of glass from architects Polshek Partnership, now Ennead Architects. It helps with airflow and energy usage. The base also houses a New York Public Library branch.
Solar panels on the roof produce 10% of the building’s energy . About 75% of the available surface area is landscaped, and an on-site system captures and filters half of the rainfall. Most of the construction materials come from within 500 miles, and 80% of them contain recycled components. Those choices looked ahead of their time in 2008: The Solaire, the first tower built under the neighborhood’s rules, had opened only five years earlier.
Ennead describes the tower as LEED Gold certified, and says it was the first residential use of double-glass curtain wall technology in the United States.
