Green Buildings

Citi buildings granted LEED certification.

Chicago, driven by the vision of Mayor Richard Daley, has become a national leader in promoting green buildings.

Green buildings "tread lightly on the earth," says Chicago environmental commissioner Suzanne Malec-McKenna. Not only are they constructed in part from recycled materials, but they are also water- and energy-efficient and healthier for people to live and work in.

 A list of the Top 10 Greenest American Cities. 

Impressive green architecture!

 

5 innovative and cool buildings that use nature to their advantage

 The American Institute of Architecture announced the top 10 environmental buildings for 2008.

The city of Austin in comptemplating requiring energy efficiency standards being met before a home can be sold. Sounds good in theory, right?

The design consists of seven platforms, six of which are accessible by a central spiral staircase. Plants are grown in containers that are built into the perimeter of each platform. These containers are also designed to collect and store rainwater to water the plants.

LEED certified buildings are currently receiving federal subsidies which offset the cost of the required energy system commissioning and processing fees. In my opinion this makes the entire LEED process well worth it, but many are still not convinced… until now.

Modtech announced that it now has the ability to offer the Iguana green classroom buildings via a district-approved cooperative purchase (”piggyback”) agreement. The Iguana is based on standards from the Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) and is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certifiable without site consideration.

A North American organization of energy experts issued a report that found that building more green buildings is the best way to cut carbon dioxide. In fact, green buildings could cut emissions more deeply, quickly and more cheaply than any other global warming mitigation effort.

Why more green projects are showing up in Nevada. It could be about the money.

When he’s not building vertical gardens, French scientist Patrick Blanc studies plant adaptation at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (www.cnrs.fr). He creates beautiful, organic, vertical gardens for surfaces ranging from outdoor cityscapes to private indoor living rooms.

Sarah Shapiro discusses the news the some big box chains will only be building green from now on -- green sprawl is still sprawl.

We’ve spent a lot of time on this blog touring different types of sustainable developments. From containers homes to LEED Platinum offices and even fabulous prefab, we have definitely seen some of the best in modern sustainable design. We also realized we have failed to show anything that is truly affordable. Yesterday’s post on prefabricated modern homes showed several amazing designs, but some of them are quite expensive...