Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II)

Active Modular Phytoremediation System Building-Integrated Testbed

In collaboration with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) and Fresh Air Building Systems (FABS), an HVAC-integrated Active Modular Phytoremediation System (AMPS) green wall was installed at the Public Safety Answer Centering II (PSAC II) in Bronx, NY in 2017. Comprised of 288 plant modules delivering filtered air to two identical, dedicated classrooms, the AMPS green wall is a permanent architectural test bed used to study its impacts on indoor air quality (IAQ), energy usage, human health and well-being. Contemporary construction materials and building types are complicit in the degradation of IAQ and have become principal contributors to health problems in developed countries. Compounding this is the poor air quality within global metropolitan areas, which is an important determinant of population health and well-being. By integrally cleaning airborne contaminants associated with poor indoor air quality, active bioremediation systems like AMPS have the potential to decrease or even eliminate fresh air requirements and with that the potential to both realize substantial energy savings in climate types with high heating and/or cooling loads and to reduce or eliminate the need to intake, treat and circulate poor quality air in heavily polluted urban areas.

Project Date: 2017

Researchers: Anna Dyson, Jason Vollen, Ahu Aydogan, Matt Gindlesparger, Jefferson Ellinger, Peter Stark, Ted Ngai, Lupita Montoya, Josh Draper, Alexandros Theodoridis, Bob Karliceck, Paulo Pinheiro, John Erickson, Kristin Bennett, Alicia Walf, Nancy Diniz, Marianne Nyman, Tessa Pocock, Cynthia Collins, Andrew Rosner, Ranjit Arpels-Josiah, Katrina Estacio, Rohit Chitale, Paul Mankiewicz, Beizhan Yan, Qiang Yang, Ahu Aydogan, Tyler Stout, Mandi Pretorius, Phoebe Mankiewicz, Christina Ciardullo, Divya Ravichandar, Mae-ling Lokko, Nina Wilson, Ben Feagin, Connor Pinson, Andreas Theodoridis, Naomi Keena, Mohamed Aly, Justin Shultz, Kenton Philips

Collaborators: SOM, Fresh Air Building Systems (FABS), NYU, RPI, ANL, Columbia Lamont Earth Observatory

Sponsors: NYSERDA, NYSTAR, NYC-DDC