NYC's architect-led Climate Advisory Board takes shape

Jill Lerner, Managing Principal at Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF), Stas Zakrzewski of Zakrzewski + Hyde Architects, and Arup Principal Fiona Cousins have been appointed by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to the city's 16-member Climate Advisory Board to help steer the city's implementation of an ambitious climate agenda for new and existing buildings. 

The board helped to enact Local Law 97, the emissions reduction-focused Climate Mobilization Act (CMA) passed in 2019 that was initially billed as banning all-glass skyscrapers. de Blasio has since walked back from those aspects of the plan, but the initiative's potential to reshape the city's built environment remains. 

Local Law 97 creates, for example, a new Office of Building Energy and Emissions Performance (OBEEP) housed within a new Office of Sustainability at the city's Department of Buildings. The OBEEP, according to the legislative text, will be directed by a yet-t-be-named "registered design professional." 

The plan will requir...