Both developer Bijou Properties and architect Marchetto Higgins Stieve are serious about making projects sustainable. Two developments in Hoboken, N.J., which has evolved from a city of gritty industrial warehouses and factories to hip millennial magnet, show this firsthand.
After developing Edge Lofts near the city’s 14th Street ferry, which became the first LEED Platinum residential building in the state, the two companies went on to develop VINE on Hoboken’s western edge, considered the final frontier of the city’s transformation.
The 11-story building has gained LEED Gold certification, one reason being its location adjacent to a stop on the 9th Street-Congress Street light-rail system. There’s also a shuttle van. “Residents don’t need a car,” says architect Dean Marchetto, FAIA, founding principal of the architecture firm.
To take advantage of New York City views, his firm designed the building with a tiered plan. It also made the façade unique by altering the exterior brick and window pattern, which gave rise to a variety of interior layouts rather than cookie-cutter designs.
As part of its effort to give back to Hoboken, Bijou constructed a large plaza at grade that the neighborhood can use and devoted square footage within the building to a restaurant and day-care center.
Architect Colleen O’Keefe, design director with Bijou Properties, gave the interior an industrial chicness with exposed concrete in the stairwell and lobby.
Sustainable choices include bamboo on the flooring and walls, a vegetated roof planted with sedum that absorbs water, and a co-generation system that provides backup if a power failure occurs.
Though a car isn’t necessary at VINE, residents who own one enjoy automated parking technology that evokes the Jetsons’ fantasy world. The building won a Green Apple Award in 2015 for its environmental practice.
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