Bird-friendly Building Examples
The Farm atop the Javits Center. Photo: NYC Bird Alliance
Our work with building partners makes New York City safer for birds, including reducing the 230,000 bird deaths from building collisions that occur annually. We applaud property managers and building owners who have taken voluntary steps to adopt bird-safe glass. Check out our initial list of bird-friendly buildings below to see examples of buildings taking action to reduce their impacts on collisions. We'll be adding soon more bird-friendly actors who most recently undertook bird-safe glass retrofits, including Green-Wood Cemetery, Brookfield Ferry Terminal, Circa Central Park, and more! Please let us know what additional buildings should be recognized for their efforts by emailing birdcollisions@nycbirdalliance.org.
1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge
Location: 60 Furman St, Brooklyn, NY 11201
About the building: 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge is a sustainable luxury hotel with waterfront views of the Manhattan skyline, a rooftop pool, and exclusive amenities.
Bird-friendly design: In August, 2022, a portion of the windows were retrofitted with a Feather Friendly® film that uses a 2" x 2" white, 0.25" dot matrix in their Symmetry pattern. The bird-safe retrofit resulted in an over 50% reduction in collisions at the site, as measured by our Project Safe Flight collision monitoring program.
More info: www.1hotels.com/brooklyn-bridge/sustainability
About the building: 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge is a sustainable luxury hotel with waterfront views of the Manhattan skyline, a rooftop pool, and exclusive amenities.
Bird-friendly design: In August, 2022, a portion of the windows were retrofitted with a Feather Friendly® film that uses a 2" x 2" white, 0.25" dot matrix in their Symmetry pattern. The bird-safe retrofit resulted in an over 50% reduction in collisions at the site, as measured by our Project Safe Flight collision monitoring program.
More info: www.1hotels.com/brooklyn-bridge/sustainability
Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
Location: 429 11th Ave, New York, NY 10001
About the building: This self-sustaining New York icon has become a wildlife sanctuary, a community partner, and a nationwide nexus where the latest ideas in business and pop culture converge under one very green roof. With a significant investment in their infrastructure, the Javits Center has quickly become a leader in sustainability, security, and technology, setting a new standard for convention centers throughout the country.
Collision history: The original Javits Center, completed in 1986, was designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect I. M. Pei as a modern crystal palace. Project Safe Flight volunteers monitored the site for nine years, and came to rate the building as one of the City’s greatest causes of collision deaths, perhaps because the original dark glass was highly reflective.
Bird-friendly design: In 2014, the Javits Center replaced nearly one-third of its glass with stainless steel panels, while the remaining glass areas were substituted by low-reflection glass that is less than half as reflective as the original glass. The new glass panes include a frit-dot pattern that alerts birds to the presence of a solid barrier, while blurring reflected images. Collision monitoring efforts in following years revealed a striking 90% reduction in collisions at this building.
The 2014 renovation also included the installation of a 6.75-acre green roof that has since provided habitat for birds, bats, and insects. Furthermore, in 2022, they established a group of new roofs that include a native pollinator garden, shade garden, food forest, and farm.
More info: www.javitscenter.com/sustainability/rooftop-habitats
Suggestions for more bird-friendly buildings? Please email birdcollisions@nycbirdalliance.org.
About the building: This self-sustaining New York icon has become a wildlife sanctuary, a community partner, and a nationwide nexus where the latest ideas in business and pop culture converge under one very green roof. With a significant investment in their infrastructure, the Javits Center has quickly become a leader in sustainability, security, and technology, setting a new standard for convention centers throughout the country.
Collision history: The original Javits Center, completed in 1986, was designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect I. M. Pei as a modern crystal palace. Project Safe Flight volunteers monitored the site for nine years, and came to rate the building as one of the City’s greatest causes of collision deaths, perhaps because the original dark glass was highly reflective.
Bird-friendly design: In 2014, the Javits Center replaced nearly one-third of its glass with stainless steel panels, while the remaining glass areas were substituted by low-reflection glass that is less than half as reflective as the original glass. The new glass panes include a frit-dot pattern that alerts birds to the presence of a solid barrier, while blurring reflected images. Collision monitoring efforts in following years revealed a striking 90% reduction in collisions at this building.
The 2014 renovation also included the installation of a 6.75-acre green roof that has since provided habitat for birds, bats, and insects. Furthermore, in 2022, they established a group of new roofs that include a native pollinator garden, shade garden, food forest, and farm.
More info: www.javitscenter.com/sustainability/rooftop-habitats
Suggestions for more bird-friendly buildings? Please email birdcollisions@nycbirdalliance.org.
Brookfield Place Terminal
Location: Vesey St, New York, NY 10281
About the building: Owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and operated by NY Waterway, this passenger ferry terminal is situated at the foot of Vesey Street in Battery Park City, Manhattan and serves ferries along the Hudson River in New York City and northeastern New Jersey.
Collision history: In fall 2022, a Project Safe Flight volunteer alerted NYC Bird Alliance staff about several dead birds that had fallen onto the narrow service walkways flanking the two entrances to the terminal. The glass making up the entrances to the terminal presented dangerous fly-through conditions, with dead birds piling up on the external gangplank or falling into the Hudson.
Bird-friendly design: In September 2023, the glass entrances to the terminal were retrofitted with a Feather Friendly® film that uses a 2" x 2" black, 0.25" dot matrix in their Harmony pattern.
More info:
Kingsland Wildflowers at Broadway Stages
Location: 520 Kingsland Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11222
About the building: Beginning in 2016, Newtown Creek Alliance, Broadway Stages, Alive Structures, and NYC Bird Alliance collaborated to create a series of five green roofs at Kingsland Wildflowers in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The community spaces serve as a tool to engage the public in conservation issues, environmental stewardship, and sustainability practices. Kingsland Wildflowers is currently managed by the Newtown Creek Alliance.
Bird-friendly design: Kingsland Wildflowers at Broadway Stages includes just under 24,000 square feet of low-growing sedum and wildflower meadow planted with bird-friendly species native to the Long Island Sound coastal lowlands, including Butterfly Weed, Heart-leaved Golden Alexanders, and grasses such as Stout Blue-eyed Grass and Northern Dropseed. Located in a polluted industrial area next to Newtown Creek, the green roofs soak up stormwater, clean and cool the air, save energy costs, and provide much-needed habitat for birds, bats, and insects.
NYC Bird Alliance monitored wildlife at Kingsland Wildflowers from the spring of 2017 through July 2019. Wildlife richness quickly increased on the green roof, likely due to the diversity of native species included among the roof’s plantings. Within two years of its establishment, 17 arthropod orders, 20 bird species, and 5 bat species were recorded using the roof habitat. Pollinating native bees and flies visit the floral resources on the roof, while birds such as Barn Swallows and Chimney Swifts can be observed foraging overhead.
More info: http://www.kingslandwildflowers.com/
