Disney's New York operations were scattered across the Upper West Side in aging facilities, including a former horse stable that housed ABC News broadcast sets. When the company set out to bring ABC, ESPN, Marvel, and its other divisions under one roof, the design prompt required upgrades for the next generation of broadcast technology and adherence to New York's Local Law 97 emissions requirements. The result is the Robert A. Iger Building at 7 Hudson Square, a 1.2 million-square-foot vertical campus that's fully electric and LEED Platinum certified.Joseph Chase, Principal at Skidmore Owings & Merrill, and Maxwell Hatfield-Biondo, Director of HVAC at Jaros, Baum & Bolles led the technical design, drawing on decades of collaboration between their firms on projects like Manhattan West and 35 Hudson Yards. Their approach to electrification starts with a question most developers skip: what do you actually need? Rather than sizing systems for hypothetical worst-case scenarios, they used Disney's utility data from existing facilities to right-size equipment. Then they designed mechanical systems to recover heat that would otherwise be rejected to the outdoors. Only after reducing and recovering did they electrify the remaining loads. Following this sequence is the difference between a building that struggles to heat itself in winter and one where the heating systems barely turn on because there's so much recoverable heat from production equipment and people.The conversation also gets into specifics of how condenser water source heat pumps work alongside air source heat pumps to create redundancy, why the terracotta facade was essential for both thermal performance and construction speed, and the acoustic strategies required when you're building broadcast studios next to a subway line and the Holland Tunnel entrance. Episode Outline01:39) Joe and Max's backgrounds and the long SOM-JB&B collaboration history(06:52) Disney's motivation to bring multiple companies into one Hudson Square campus(13:25) Why Hudson Square's zoning enables large floor plates for media and tech tenants(17:17) Local Law 97 requirements and the reduce-recover-electrify approach to compliance(27:20) Air source heat pumps, condenser water systems, and dual-source heating strategy(35:43) How the high-performance terracotta facade enables low-temperature heating(44:46) Box-in-box construction and sound isolation mats for below-grade production studios(52:41) The business case for electrification: efficiency gains and increased leasable areaAdditional ResourcesCheck out The Mira Shoppe. American Building Podcast listeners get a complimentary gift with their first purchase! Email [email protected] to receive your exclusive code and treat yourself to a piece you’ll cherish, while supporting a brand that gives back.Learn more about The Robert A. Iger Building LEED project tools and resources NYSERDA programs Local Law 97  Connect with Joseph ChaseConnect on LinkedIn Website Connect with Maxwell Hatfield-BiondoConnect on LinkedIn Website More From American Building Grab the exclusive guide: How Eight Developers & Designers Are Responding to The Housing Crisis  Learn more on the American Building websiteFollow on LinkedInFollow on InstagramConnect with Atif Qadir on LinkedInLearn more about Michael Graves Architecture & Design Watch this episode on YouTube