Nation’s 1st ​“Net Zero” Hotel Takes Form

And to think the Unite-Here backed Alders tried to block this development!

Nice to see Mr. Hamm contributing to the NHI.

I also think that this development is a good example of what Long Wharf could be in the future..

Most of Long Wharf is still underutilized.. Future development or redevelopment that comes may also be structured by the power of using solar energy. It would be interesting to see how that moves forward.

It's intriguing how an aerial view can help us see our surroundings in new ways.

You'd never know, from the second photo in this article, that this site is a stone's throw from Long Island Sound, a waterfront that ought to be one of New Haven's most attractive features and is, instead, obstructed and isolated from the city by barrier after barrier -- highways, parking lots, low-rise industrial/commercial real estate, and railroad yards.

Look at all that flat space on the IKEA roof in the aerial photograph. That could be covered with solar panels as well.

And the IKEA parking lot -- black asphalt that heats up in sunny weather like an oven, with that solar energy doing nothing but adding its little bit to global warming, and the rainwater running off it all mingled with petroleum chemicals from the cars -- suppose at least some of it had a roof built over it to create shade, and that roof had solar panels and/or a surface that collected rainwater in a sustainable way.

How would such a tract of land be used in, say, the Netherlands? You can bet it wouldn't look like this.

Dennis, the alders did not try to block the development. They argued, incorrectly, that the Board of Alders had jurisdiction over the use of the site. Nothing came of this argument.

One clarification. "Net zero" is an energy accounting framework. At times, the hotel will get its power from the grid. Depending on the season, weather, and time of day, part of this power will come from fossil fuel plants. This includes power from the gas-fired plant on the harbor. (Electricity follows the path of least resistance.) The hotel's owner will offset the pollution from the fossil fuel power by buying renewable energy credits.

None of this takes away from the significance of this project. Chris Schweitzer is right - we need to transition away from fossil fuels. This project illustrates one way of doing so.

Gretchen,

You can't see it clearly in the photo, but I believe the entire roof of IKEA is covered in solar panels.

Kevin - the BOA tried but failed.

Pirelli Hotel Plan Survives Surprise Attack
https://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/pirelli_hotel/

And tried using the BZA to block the Hotel Duncan
https://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/zoning_board_walkout/

@ stevehamm & Gretchen,

The IKEA roof in New Haven is indeed covered in solar panels see link to better photo below...

https://aishasoffice.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/ikea-new-haven-connecticut-screenshot-from-google-maps.jpg

I'm so happy that the Pirelli building is going to be saved and reused as a hotel. It's one of the few Brutalist buildings that I actually like in the city. The fact that they're using solar panels to generate energy is great, but I also like the idea of covering the parking lot shared by this building and IKEA with a light colored wind resistant canopy to shade it from the sun, collecting rainwater, reflecting the heat instead of absorbing it.
Like Gretchen Pritchard and quinnchionn I feel that our waterfront access and usage is sadly restricted and not used to its full advantage, and also does nothing to mitigate sea level rise and increasingly severe storms. More should be done to increase access, utilize the land for recreation and entertainment, and to preserve the wetlands, protect wildlife, promote ecologically healthy land usage, and to buffer against storms and sea level rise.
All of those uses are complimentary if done correctly, and a huge asset for tourism, residents use, and businesses related to this goal like watercraft rental like kayaks, canoes, windsurfing equipment and lessons and repairs, boat tours, nature tours, food and beverage establishments, and events facilities, etc. Having the interstate highways and the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge going through right next to our waterfront should display New Haven's finest asset as a jewel of attractions to lure passing vehicles to get off the highway and explore, not a sad dying industrial and commercial strip with a soon to be obsolete fossil fuel industry tank farm. I'd love to see the State and the City invest in rethinking and redeveloping this asset with a comprehensive plan that makes it equal to Chicago's Lakefront in usage and attractions.
CT just got voted one of the least fun states, let's reverse that with developing an ecologically friendly and attractive and useful waterfront that makes the best use of our harbor and rivers and stretches from West Haven's boardwalk to Lighthouse Park.

Yale should be paying for putting solar panels on every public building, school, hotel, restaurant and one each and every one of those high rises being built in City Crossing and on buildings like the Whit.

And, every property tax free building that Yale occupies - these occupiers should be required to put solar panels on each and every building in New Haven and the ones they own in neighboring towns.

They can also pay for the installation of solar panels on the hospitals that are (ha-ha) "non profit.

Wake up New Haven!

Make Yale pay their fair share!

@ wesunidad...

"hospitals that are (ha-ha) "non profit"

Truth post of the year nominee.

@Heather C,

My only problem is that if the highways were built a little differently then that would have probably made for a much better waterfront where the area would be more connected.

• In my opinion, it would have been genius to have Downtown and Wooster Sq be better connected to Long Wharf by having more streets connected from nearby neighborhoods.. and also somehow have the highways tunnel under to go through the area.

Thanks for the information about the solar panels on IKEA's roof: very glad to learn that they are there.

A variation on Wesunidad's proposal. PV systems typically pay for themselves in 5-10 years, depending on such things as a building's orientation and energy use. Over the long term, solar beats the return on investment of the stock market. Yale could invest in local PV installations, getting part of the cost savings in return. Energy services companies have doing this as part of larger sustainability investments, on a for-profit basis, for decades.

Speaking of climate change, Long Wharf may be underwater in the future, as it was in the past.

@ tmctague...

"Speaking of climate change, Long Wharf may be underwater in the future, as it was in the past."

Second truth post of the year nominee. And on the same thread. Things are looking up.

Wish they would build more buildings in long wharf then in the middle of the road 34 connector. 🤷‍♀️

@wesunidad

Yale employs 15,000 people and pay $2.6 billion in wages every year. The university is not a cow for you to milk.

There shouldn't be a building this height, here. It is an eyesore and an obstruction of the skyline. There shouldn't be brutalist buildings, they are ugly, foreboding, and most of them in New Haven seem designed to definitively segregate neighborhoods with structures that look way too much like jails, as much as they are to house residents, workers and vehicles. Was this architectural style designed for thst purpose, I wonder?

@quinnchionn, you and I are of exactly the same mind about restoring an actual, accessible, connected and visible New Haven waterfront.. Inc. burying the highway.

Frederick Olmstead generally concurred. See https://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/city_plan_centennial_approaches/

If I remember correctly, Mayor John DeStefano suggested burying the highway in the area of Long Wharf years ago.

Sea level rise is real, and largely human-caused. But Long Island Sound is currently rising at about 3.2 millimeters (an eighth of an inch) per year. There are many shoreline structures that are at risk because of SLR in the mid-term future. The Pirelli Building is not one of them.

SLR is also part of the reason why I-95 is not going to be buried. Doing so would substantially increase the risk that the Pirelli and other buildings imnediately inland of the highway would be innundated by coastal surges. Lowering the elevation of I-95 also increases the odds that the higheay would be innundated.

quinnchionn- unfortunately due to the high water table and area flooding history which will become worse with sea level rise from global warming tunnels won't work, but yes, roads should be connected across the highway and the train tracks to more easily connect people and bikes and vehicles to the waterfront. Chicago has Lakeshore Drive which is a highway but with pedestrian and bike ramp overpasses and tunnels as well as roads to parking lots and garages for vehicles to park and to access the lakefront from downtown.
I saw the planned new development of Route 34 from Ella Grasso Blvd to Dwight St doesn't include reconnecting the roads that cross it from the Dwight/West River neighborhoods to the corresponding streets in the Hill neighborhood. Part of reknitting the neighborhoods should be reconnecting those cross streets and changing it from a semi-highway to a neighborhood streets plan again, especially since most of the new development will be residential. this would improve traffic calming and pedestrian and bicycle traffic flow between the neighborhoods and to the waterfront.

@Kevin McCarthy.... well then, we shall have to go full chunnel.

Laurelnaiad, FWIW, there was a tunnel alternative considered for the Q Bridge project years ago. It was quickly rejected on cost grounds.

trevorwilliams...
Yale is an invader and an occupier - using laws they created to stay a "non-profit".

Yale created the unions because they exploit the workers on every level - even to this day.

The amount you mention that Yale pays in salaries is NOT in lieu free, non taxable property it occupies.

The amount that you site for salaries, for people's labor to run Yale, has nothing whatsoever to do with Yale not paying property taxes.

Yale is paying $2.6 Billion in salaries because UNIONS have had to organize at Yale to get that amount.
It's not a GIFT to the City - it's payment for the people who labor there to make Yale function.

Check out the graphic on Prospect Street created by the unions between Grove and
Trumbull...it will show you in painted gradations the humungous size of Yale's endowment.

Yes, this graphic proves Yale is a cash cow! Thanks unions!

Why do you brag about Yale "gifting" the City with $2.6 billion when Yale had to concede to the unions to get that?

UNIONS are not a spectator sport. Yale does not pay well and never has. The workers over the decades, out of necessity have had to organize to survive to eat, not to be able to afford lunch at Morey's.

All credit to the Yale Unions for their recent victory!

I speak for myself - work at Yale is not a prestige job. But, it is a job where you can experience class struggle first hand.

The White man is rapidly becoming a minority and White Supremacist Yale is getting nervous. I understand your defense of your White privilege as it slips away.

As White supremacy diminishes, Yale will find ways to hide their money with legal tricks. That's nothing new, but they know they are in a losing battle as capitalism goes down.

All previous economic systems have failed. Capitalism is not permanent - it is not forever - it is not human nature, it is not universal.

Solar panels are not without their own problems, e.g. their production causes pollution and many are manufactured in China which is notorious for its lack of environmental controls and use of forced labor--i.e. slavery. When panels reach end-of-life there's the problem of recycling. Much science today has succumbed to partisan politics, so one easily can find studies via internet to support one viewpoint or another (what I call "battling links"), but this article seems balanced: https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2018/carbon-footprint-solar-panels-manufacturing/12186
**And then there's the problem of space: https://phys.org/news/2018-08-renewable-energy-sources-space-fossil.html