Exercise 1. Choose the appropriate title to each of the four parts of the text and comment on them.
Generating Energy.
Green Depths.
Winning Project of low-impact high-end building.
Green Heights.
Exercise 2.Do you agree with these statements? If not, give your reasons.
1. The Visionaire by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects is a beacon of sustainable design.
2. Building’s elements such as its sleek form, granite base and travertine lobby walls are inherent to green building.
3. The building seems to be very glassy with low energy consumption.
4. The Battery Park City Authority wanted that about a half of the exterior facade be masonry.
5. The Visionaire has a number of carefully detailed green roof terraces.
6. The indoor air quality was one of the main concerns of the developers.
7. The exhaust air is allowed to escape from the building as it cannot be reduced.
8. Reusing all of the blackwater from the building is one of the green features of the building.
9. Blue solar panels and a microturbine meet the building’s base electrical load.
10. Two geothermal wells are drilled 460 meters deep below the building to heat and cool all the offices of the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy.
11. The balance between luxury and sustainability was achieved by the choice of materials.
Exercise 3.Use the information of the text to answer the questions.
1. What makes the Visionaire energy-efficient?
2. Why did the architects employ a terra cotta rain screen for the exterior façade?
3. What are green roof areas of both the occupied and unoccupied roof surfaces planted with?
4. In what way is fresh air processed before supplying to every room?
5. What is the cleansed water used for?
6. What power is generated by blue solar panels and microturbine installed on the roof?
7. Geothermal wells are drilled for cooling and preheating the circulating liquid of the building, aren’t they?
Exercise 4.The Visionaire may be called one of the greenest high-rise residential building in the USA as it includes a great number of sustainable elements. Find and translate the sentences containing the information about each of them.
- the skin of the building (high-performance curtain-wall system, insulated spandrel panels, mineral fiber insulation);
- green roof;
- HVAC system;
- exhaust air reducing;
- wastewater reclamation system;
- solar panels;
- the 60-kilowatt microturbine;
- two geothermal wells
Exercise 5.Do you know that:
- Battery Park City is an artificial extension of southwest Manhattan;
- Battery Park City is made from the material excavated during the construction of the World Trade Center in the 1970s;
- Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects has a long history in Battery Park City;
- firm founder Cesar Pelli designed the World Financial Center there in the 1980s;
- his son and partner Raphael Pelli is the principal designer for several other projects in the area: the Solaire was the first residential tower in the USA to receive LEED Gold in 2004, and the Verdesian – LEED Platinum in 2008.