The Quest for the Smoke-Proof Building
Efforts to improve indoor air quality have taken on fresh urgency as more cities experience intense pollution from climate-change-fueled wildfires.
The Chicago skyline is bathed in an orange haze from wildfire smoke on June 8.
Photographer: Jamie Kelter Davis/BloombergAt the Urban Green Building conference in New York City last week, real estate professionals and experts on sustainable building kibbitzed and confabbed about how to create a more climate-friendly built environment. While the planned topics included electrification and green retrofits, the subject nobody could escape was outside the windows of the NYU Kimmel Center.
“As you're looking through orange air, questioning ‘am I on Mars or Manhattan?,’ it becomes clear that the best place for refuge becomes our buildings,” said John Mandyck, the chief executive officer of the Urban Green Council. “Buildings are a critical element for climate resiliency.”