08 Mar, 2009
$450 MILLION HOTEL – TRULY GREEN
Robert Congel, owner of the Pyramid Cos., says he will build a $450 million, 40-story green hotel as part of the Carousel Center mall. The unnamed hotel will be powered (in part) by electricity generated by its solar panel facade and by hydro-electric turbines utilizing rainwater collected on its roof. It is intended to be the cornerstone of Destiny USA: a 75-million-square-foot retail, hotel, and entertainment complex touted as the world’s most sustainable project.
The hotel’s green theme will be carried throughout its design, Destiny officials said. A rendering of the hotel shows a V-shape structure on the north side of the Carousel Center, with a green facade that makes it look like six giant blades of grass soaring into the sky next to Onondaga Lake.
Destiny will also showcase sustainability. The complex will have its own renewable-energy power plant, enabling it to operate independently of fossil fuels. A horizontal elevator system will transport people around the car-free mini-city, and a monorail will connect it to Syracuse’s airport and downtown. Pyramid also plans to incorporate more than 3,000 tons of coal ash into sidewalks and other concrete elements—one feature that led the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to describe Destiny as “the world’s largest structure to be built from recycled industrial materials.” Congel is beginning to deliver on his green promises in the project’s first phase, which aims for LEED Gold certification. Construction vehicles are powered by 100 percent biodiesel fuel. In a show of support, the U.S. Green Building Council purchased $50,000 of the tax-exempt green bonds awarded to the project.
