Located in Canarsie, Brooklyn, the 2.5 acre Remsen Yard Reconstruction is a maintenance facility for NYC’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Supporting the city’s water and sewer operations, it replaced an existing facility which had become outdated and too small to meet the DEP's needs. The building was built using local products and materials with recycled content, including reusing and salvaging the brick wall and unique mosaic from the original DEP building. 

The "Productive Roof"

Covering 72% of the site, the vast 1.5 acre skylit roof shelters and provides natural light to the administrative building, yard operations and piles, collecting over 1 million gallons of rainwater annually for site-related uses, and produces up to 33.7 kWh of electricity annually from integrated mono-crystalline photovoltaic panels. 

Water conservation

The dominant water usage is in exterior yard operations such as washing trucks and misting piles for dust control, using an average of 6,600 gallons per day. The rainwater harvesting strategy was to collect rainwater from the roof to reduce site water use by over 40% by collecting it through underground leaders to a 20,000-gallon tank, after passing through two first-flush drywell tanks. The rainwater is treated per NYC health guidelines and reused at dedicated exterior hose spigots. Landscape swales with adaptable, low maintenance, drought tolerant and native plants were incorporated into the landscape and site design.

Architect: Kiss + Cathcart, Architects

General Contractor: M.A. Angeliades

Owner:  New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP) 

Gallery (click to enlarge)