A Cleaner, Quieter Building is Promised for 60 Hudson

POSTED September 1, 2007

Representatives of the telecommunications hub 60 Hudson Street say they are making progress in their efforts to reduce the noise and diesel emissions that neighbors have been battling for more than a decade.
Responding to a request from Community Board 1, a team representing the owners, GVA Williams and Stahl Real Estate Company, met recently with the board’s Quality of Life Committee and nearby residents, trying to assure them that the building is becoming quieter and cleaner.
“What we’ve been doing at the building, you’re not going to see because it all happens inside the building,” said Patricia Scanlan, who is a noise consultant for 60 Hudson Street. “As lease renewals come up, it’s a requirement that tenants update or change up their equipment.”
She said those changes include doubling the space for the air conditioning units used to cool the telecom’s powerful equipment, and for backup generators that are run during periodic testing. Air conditioners are to be set farther from the louvers and the exhaust from the generators will vent through a pair of louvers, rather than a single one used by most of the equipment. Those changes should reduce the hiss, she said.
But they will be years in the making. Under current lease agreements, the tenants cannot be compelled to modify the equipment.
“They have to agree to do it, or their lease has to expire and then we can tell them to do it,” said Robert Getreu, senior managing director for GVA Williams. Tenants whose equipment is loud enough to be in violation of the city’s new noise code could also be forced to make changes.
Sean Mooney, the building manager, said that over the next five years “a number of leases” will expire and equipment will be modified at that time. He could not provide numbers when asked how many tenants had modified their equipment since a revised master plan for the building, which outlined the changes, was approved by the city in December.
“I would like to have a schedule of decibel levels, however you want to measure it, by which total noise emission can expect to decline, so that we who live here can make plans for how to deal with it,” said Charles Komanoff, who lives near the building.
“We believe over a period of time that the noise levels will decrease,” said Getreu, “But we’d be guessing if we got into specific numbers.”
Aside from the noise, exhaust emissions from the building’s backup generators have long been a concern of area residents.
“I walk out of my door and all three generators at ground level are spewing out,” said Thomas Street resident Epp Hardy. “I cannot walk down the street because of that. Are you telling me that this is legal? And fine?”
The building has switched to a low-sulfur fuel that could help reduce the emissions, Brian Maddox, a spokesman for the building said.
There are currently 46 generators in the building and Getreu said there is no limit on how many more could be installed.
“Is there any change in technology coming that would possibly reduce this?” asked committee member Allan Tannenbaum.
“The industry has unfortunately gone the opposite direction, gotten hotter,” said Getreu. “The routers have gotten hotter, denser, and there’s more air conditioning required.”
Deborah Allen, a member of Neighbors Against N.O.I.S.E, a group which has long clashed with building management at 60 Hudson Street over noise, emissions and fuel storage concerns, told the Trib that for now she is counseling patience and diplomacy.
“I think they’re trying and we have to talk to them,” she said. “God knows, I think we should be talking to Iran.”

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