The Yudelson Associates Blog: What's New

Thursday, September 20, 2007

German Cars and German Green Buildings: A Necessary Match?

This week I’m in Frankfurt talking to a group of 60 architects assembled by Somfy, a French manufacturer of dynamic building facades (exterior shades and shutters for high-rises), so I thought I’d venture 100 miles down the road to visit with David Cook, a partner at Behnisch Architekten in Stuttgart, best known as the home of Mercedes Benz. Behnisch completed the 350,000 sq.ft. LEED Platinum Genzyme building in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2003, which still stands as a monument to an incredibly attractive, people friendly and high performance building. Behnisch almost always works closely from the outset of a project with a Stuttgart-based climate engineering firm, Transsolar Energietechnik. The collaboration has gone on all over the world for the past ten years and has produced some incredibly well performing, green, great-looking buildings. Good lessons in fostering creativity for American architects, who tend to keep their engineers on a tight leash.

Posted by Jerry on 09/20/2007 at 01:18 PM

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Friday, September 14, 2007

Why Build It Green?

I’m quoted in the online Matter magazine recently talking about the business case for green buildings. It’s not at all about energy savings. To quote the interview: Builders of green commercial properties may not be able to recover the higher costs in rent, but other factors can make the enhancements justifiable, according to Yudelson. “You can attract higher quality tenants who are willing to sign longer leases and reduce your carrying costs by leasing properties quicker,” he says. Green buildings also have higher resale values, Yudelson says.

Posted by Jerry on 09/14/2007 at 03:46 PM

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