The Engineering
Marvel of North
Shore Towers and
Country Club Sal Castro, North Shore Towers and Country Club chief engineer (center), surrounded
In addition to the luxury living, many amenities, firstrate
security, and year-round fun activities that North
Shore Towers and Country Club offers its residents and
members, another benefit is its design and the engineering
team that keeps it all humming.
What helps make that possible is Sal Castro, North
Shore Towers and Country Club chief engineer, who has
been working there for a total of 42 years, including as
chief engineer for the past 34 of those years.
Castro joined the North Shore Towers and Country
Club staff in 1977 and, prior to being named chief
engineer, served as watch engineer for three years
operating the energy plant there on various night
shifts and energy plant foreman for five years
leading maintenance repair crews working on
generators, boilers, chillers, water pumps, and
cooling towers.
The North Shore Towers design is “unique
because we were never connected to the
utility grid, so we generate all of our own
power on site,” Castro says. “On one hand,
this makes the 24/7 operation critical, and this
can be challenging. But we have 100 percent
redundancy of generators, so while three are
needed at any one time, there are always three
more ready to go if needed, increasing the
reliability.”
“On the other hand,” he notes, “during the
times there were long grid outages in the Long
Island and New York City area, North Shore Towers had
constant power, which can be rewarding.”
In fact, the North Shore Towers plant reliability has, on
average, been “generally better than grid power reliability
over the last 40 years,” he says.
Further explaining the unique design of the North Shore
Towers energy system, he says its co-generators “simultaneously
generate electricity and free steam that is used
to heat all the water for domestic use in the three buildings,
as well as some of the heat and air conditioning.”
The local combined generator design, meanwhile, is
“more efficient without the long transmission lines, and
actually uses less fuel and has less overall emissions than
the same energy generated by a utility and a separate
boiler for hot water,” he says.
by a great maintenance repair crew who are committed to providing uninterrupted
services to the residents.
The end result: Residents “share in that common area
energy savings of approximately $1 million per year,
reflected in the maintenance charges,” Castro says.
For Castro, it’s been “rewarding learning the everchanging
needs” of North Shore Towers and “helping to
design upgrades and retrofits to meet those needs, and
managing the construction of replacement equipment
after keeping the old equipment running 40 years,” he
notes.
Among the many reasons Castro says he’s enjoyed
working at North Shore Towers is, “we have a great staff
who are committed to providing uninterrupted services
to our residents.” The power plant department staff
includes a total of 11 people, including one person who
handles all overnight and weekend shifts, so the residents
of North Shore Towers are taken care of around
the clock, seven days a week, he notes.
While there are “normal equipment breakdowns, they
go largely unnoticed by the residents, as standby equipment
is quickly put in use before any effect of equipment
downtime can be felt,” Castro says.
Glen Kotowski was the General Manager at North
Shore Towers on Aug. 14, 2003, when 50 million people
in eight eights and Canada lost electric power for an
extended period.
“As the darkness of night set in, I took an elevator ride
to the roof to observe few lights, other than vehicle
headlights, as I looked at Manhattan to the West, Long
Island to the east, to the north and to the south and
saw the eerie darkness,” he recalls. “Since we are not
connected to the electrical grid, the 3,000 residents of
North Shore Towers were virtually unaffected other
than by the hundreds of visitors who saw lights shining
in the darkness, following our lights to find and enjoy
the use of one of our two restaurants, our movie theater
and our air conditioning to stay cool on a hot summer
day.”
A second day that’s vivid in Kotowski’s memory is Oct. 29,
2012, when many people in the tristate area lost power for
days and weeks due to Hurricane Sandy.
“Our population temporarily doubled to about 6,000 as
friends and family members of our residents sought refuge
at North Shore Towers, which maintained full power, water
and heat during and after the storm,” he recalls. “Once again,
our restaurants were available to feed the masses
and our in-house staff performed exceptionally to
provide additional service needs of our guests while
continuing to provide service to our residents. As
a retired NYPD Deputy Inspector, I have to say it
was visionary when North Shore Towers was built
to install an independent power plant capable of
maintaining power during natural disasters and
emergencies. The fact that our equipment and
feeder cables are not exposed to the elements makes
us significantly less susceptible to the loss of power
during storms. North Shore Towers is fortunate
to have the dedication of our Chief Engineer, Sal
Castro and his staff to do an outstanding job keep
the power plant operational and well maintained.”
Of course, in addition to its first-rate engineering
and security staff, North Shore Towers and Country
Club offers an 18-hole golf course, five Har-Tru tennis
courts, indoor and outdoor pools, a sauna, steam rooms,
a hot tub, a state-of-the-art gym offering classes including
Pilates, and many other activities. The Club offers classes
that include boxing and Pilates Reformer, a special exercise
machine that’s “good for stretching your body,” says Country
Club Manager Mary Anne Langone. “A lot of our golfers
take the Reformer class because it helps with their flexibility,”
she adds.
Pool activities include outdoor water classes, volleyball and
several outdoor pool parties. There are basketball courts,
boxing and billiards rooms, ping-pong and shuffleboard also.
In addition, there’s shopping, a movie theater, barbecues, a
garden club and many entertainment events.
For more Country Club details and to book a tour, call
Mary Anne Langone at 718-428-5030 ext. 0.