By Elissaveta M. Brandon, Fast Company
New York City’s largest geothermal development has just opened on Coney Island. 1515 Surf is located just off the neighborhood’s famous boardwalk. The 16-story, 463-unit residential tower was developed by LCOR and designed by Studio V. It sits on top of an intricate geothermal system that stretches across more than an acre and harnesses the Earth’s heat to both heat and cool the property.
By replacing a function typically performed with fossil fuels, the geothermal system is expected to reduce the building’s carbon emissions by 60%—and slash utility costs by up to 30%, or anywhere between $150-$450 a year per resident. And with New York City’s Local Law 97, which stipulates that buildings over 25,000 square feet must cut their carbon emissions or face steep fines, it’s only the beginning.
The making of a geothermal building
1515 Surf sits atop 153 wells, each drilled exactly 499 feet deep into the ground. These wells are filled with pipes and form the core of the geothermal energy system. A network of heat pumps helps circulate water through the system, allowing the building to efficiently manage both heating and cooling.
This is all made possible because the earth maintains a nearly constant temperature of about 54°F. In the summer, when the ground temperature is cooler than the air above it, the geothermal heat pumps expel excess heat from the building into the ground, cooling the building. In the winter, when the ground temperature is comparatively warmer, the pumps extract heat from the Earth and transfer it into the building, keeping the space warm—and even heating an outdoor pool.
The system is significantly more energy-efficient than traditional boiler plants and cooling towers that are powered by fossil-fuels. But as one might imagine, installing it comes with own set of technical challenges. Together with geothermal engineers EcoSave, who designed and installed the system, LCOR spent about a year conducting feasibility and cost-benefit analyses to understand how many wells to dig, how deep into the ground they should reach, and generally speaking, how feasible a system like that was going to be for a building of this size. The wells, for example, had to be interspersed with more than 600 foundation piles, which called for “all kinds of engineering as to how close these elements could be,” says Anthony Tortora, senior VP and principal at LCOR.
The challenges continued indoors. Jay Valgora, founder and principal at Studio V, explains that the electrical conduit feeding into the geothermal system was jutting into the building’s lobby. Instead of boxing it in like you would an exhaust pipe, the architects turned this technical problem into a solution in the shape of a curved wooden ceiling that swoops over the space. The result harkens back to the Coney Island boardwalk—and hides an ugly piece of equipment at the same time. Despite the added challenge, Valgora says he’s very bullish on the technology: “There’s no question that advanced energy systems like this are the future.”
Geothermal’s big moment
For those who still associate geothermal with Iceland, it’s time for an update. The U.S. currently produces enough geothermal energy to power about three million homes. But a 2023 analysis initiative found that technical advances could enable geothermal energy to power the equivalent of more than 65 million U.S. homes by 2050.
In New York, the number of geothermal projects is growing every year. The Brooklyn Children’s Museum, the Queens Botanical Garden, and the Lion House at the Bronx Zoo all run on geothermal energy, as does St. Patrick’s Cathedral (since 2018) and a New York City Fire Department firehouse in Brooklyn (courtesy of Studio Gang). In 2026, 1515 Surf will even be eclipsed by an 834-unit development in Greenpoint, which will become the largest residential project in New York State to use a geothermal system.
The movement is gaining traction outside of New York, too. In 2023, a neighborhood in Framingham, Massachusetts, swapped out its fossil-fueled furnaces for a geothermal system that provides heating and cooling for 40 buildings, including low-income apartments, single-family homes, small businesses, and the local fire station. And just outside of Austin, real estate developer Taurus is currently building a new 2,000-acre housing development. When completed, it will use geothermal energy to heat and cool all 7,500 of its homes.
The future of geothermal homes
Back on Coney Island, the first tenants moved into 1515 Surf in June 2024, and while it’s not yet fully leased, LCOR says they are hitting their leasing targets. The property finished on time (about four years from start to finish) and within its budget (undisclosed.) Tortora also noted that the building was about 3% more expensive to build than a conventional development, but financial incentives from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and others helped offset the costs.
Over the next two years, the team will be monitoring operations to ensure the building is meeting its projected energy savings. But already, they are confident the system is worth replicating. LCOR, Studio V, and EcoSave are working on a smaller, 307-unit building in New Rochelle, which broke ground in 2022 and is scheduled to be completed next year. LCOR is also planning two more geothermal buildings in New Jersey. Tortora likens these efforts to a new chapter in the company’s 46-year history: “We’re slowly building out [our portfolio],” he says.