41 Cooper Square, Cooper Union College’s new academic building located on Third Avenue between East 6^th and 7^th Streets has been awarded LEED Platinum, the highest LEED certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. The building has been verified by the Green Building Certification Institute and is the first academic building in New York City to achieve this status.

The LEED certification achieved by the nine-story, 175,000-sq-ft 41 Cooper Square was based on green design and construction features including radiant heating and cooling ceiling panels, a building skin made of perforated aluminum steel panels in order to reduce the impact of heat radiation during summer months and insulating the interior during the winter. Other green features include a full-height atrium, a green roof, a cogeneration plant which provides additional power to the building, and state-of-the-art laboratories made up of recycled, low-emission materials.

The $150 million 41 Cooper Square was designed by architect Thom Mayne of Morphosis with associate architect Gruzen Samton LLP, owners representative Jonathan Rose Companies and construction manager F.J. Sciame making up the remainder of the project team. The groundbreaking took place in May 2007 and the project was completed in September 2009.

-Carolina Worrell