The Plan: The Bird Is the Word at NuSun Vernon Condo in Long Island City

Imagine sitting in your apartment peacefully enjoying your morning coffee when all of a sudden an awful thump disrupts your tranquil moment. Some poor bird just flew face-first into your window.

It’s a real-life scenario that happens too often thanks to the high-rises in New York City. Each year approximately 90,000 to 230,000 birds are killed in New York City because they collide with a building, according to a study by local conservation group NYC Bird Alliance and Fordham University. On a national scale, about 1 billion birds are killed annually in building collisions, according to the American Bird Conservatory.

This was a problem leaders in New York City hoped to alleviate in 2020 through Local Law 15, which requires that materials designed to reduce bird strikes be installed on newly constructed or altered buildings. The law went into effect on Jan. 10, 2021, and it is something the architects and designers at FXCollaborative take very seriously.

“What resonates with me as an architect is that human impact on the planet, the environment, the ecosystems is unmistakable,” said Daniel Piselli, principal director of sustainability at FXCollaborative. “So, for me, this bird collision issue is just one instance of the larger issue of human impact on the environment, and it’s one that’s not abstract.”

Bird strikes hopefully won’t be an issue for the residents of FXCollaborative’s latest project, NuSun Vernon, a luxury condominium building in Long Island City, Queens, developed by Sunlight Development and Nuverse Advisors. Thanks to some special windows, the nine-story building at 30-55 Vernon Boulevard has been deemed “bird-friendly,” meaning those migratory aviators can enjoy their glides through the sky without a random window appearing out of nowhere.

Windows of the 122 units at NuSun Vernon feature bird-safe Ornilux glass that is treated with a protective coating called mikado, an ultraviolet reflective pattern almost invisible to the human eye.

“Birds see deeper into the UV spectrum of light than humans do, so they figured out how to tune the materials that go into this pattern to reflect light in the UV spectrum so that [the birds] see it and we don’t,” Piselli said.

A resident would have to stand just inches from the window on the outside — if their unit was one of the select few to come with its own terrace — to see the glass’ protective pattern, which looks a little like spiderwebs. From the inside, residents won’t even notice.

Being bird-friendly isn’t the only thing developers hope will make residents want to plunk down between $595,000 and $2.1 million to live at NuSun Vernon, which is expected to be completed by February.

Interior designer Paris Forino wanted to incorporate as much of the neighborhood as possible into the interior of the building, including the nearby Noguchi Museum. There will be a number of Noguchi lanterns featured throughout the building, especially in the lobby.

Amanda Schiavo can be reached at aschiavo@commercialobserver.com.