Sustainable Design Projects
LERA is assisting with the launch of Totem, an innovative green energy solution combining solar energy, lighting, wireless communications and electric vehicle charging into a single product in the built environment.
The platform provides smart lighting beneath an array of solar panels, while the base holds compartments for 4G and WiFi, battery storage and electric vehicle charging. Designed to transform the future of public space, it will be placed in city streets, schools, corporate campuses and retail settings.
Totem Platform
This project consists of an interactive, working farm sited at the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center. The design, which explores the use of sustainable and recyclable materials in a temporal space, was selected as the winning entry in the museum’s Young Architects Program. Cardboard tubes were used as the primary building material, resulting in an expression of thoroughly integrated architecture and structure.
Public Farm One
NYPA Solar Panel Installations
LERA was the structural engineer for the installation of solar panels on the rooftops of seven existing school buildings in New York City: five in Queens, one in the Bronx and one in Staten Island. The project involved evaluating the conditions of the existing roof structure to ensure that the panels’ imposed equivalent uniform superimposed dead load of approximately 4 lb/sf did not exceed the original design loads. The design and installation of the solar panels was provided by Standard Solar.
The Edible Schoolyard consists of a free-standing, single-story building that contains a working greenhouse, an organic farm and a culinary classroom with a full kitchen. A previous school parking lot was transformed into the hands-on learning center that functions as an affiliate of the Edible Schoolyard program, which promotes nutritional awareness to students.
The building is composed of three major components: the greenhouse is a polycarbonate and aluminum structure; the steel-framed kitchen classroom is clad in a pixilated pattern of colored shingles; and utilities at the rear are designed as bold volumes covered in a bright blue rubber coating.