Located in Battery Park City near the southern tip of Manhattan, the Visionaire joins two other green residential towers Albanese has developed in the community: the Solaire, reportedly the nation's first green multifamily building when it was certified by USGBC in 2003; and the Verdesian, reportedly the nation's first LEED Platinum rental. In a release, James Gill, chairman of the Battery Park City Authority, says the developer "has exceeded expectations and set a new standard for green development in Battery Park City, New York and the entire country."

Among other attributes, the Visionaire has been designed to achieve energy savings of more than 40% and it received all 10 of the energy LEED optimization credits available. Marty Dettling, VP at the Albanese Organization, tells GlobeSt.com that accruing enough credits for LEED Platinum "sets the bar very high in all of the areas: water efficiency, energy efficiency and resource conservation, as well as requiring us to go over and above."

The development team sought from the outset to achieve LEED Platinum, says Dettling. "I would say that committing to that goal early on was the most critical factor in achieving it," he says. "So our design was guided by the need to meet that commitment."