GreenBuild Blog
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
The Eyes of Texas
Firms such as Overland Partners are growing at a measured pace by stressing a “values” approach to designing green buildings, looking to marry the sustainability aspects of their projects with good old-fashioned architecture. Two areas of special focus include the experience of people visiting and working in their spaces, and their efforts to enhance the business and public success of their clients, largely government, cultural, higher education and institutional clients. Overland’s experience shows the value of a design firm clearly standing for some important values, and having the clients you really want, find you. Their “classic” project is the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas. As a Tucsonan now, I’m looking forward to their current work on the “Tucson Origins” project in the city’s “Rio Nuevo” cultural zone.
Posted by Jerry Yudelson on 11/07/2006 at 09:06 PM
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(0) Comments • PermalinkMonday, November 06, 2006
Stern Medicine
The Stern report to the Prime Minister by the former chief economist of the World Bank, Sir Nicholas Stern, predicts a 20 percent drop in world GDP by the end of the 21st century, from expected levels, if immediate actions are not taken to reduce the expected rapid rise of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel burning. The report concludes that “strong, deliberate policy choices by governments are essential to motivate change.” The Stern report underscores the need for governments at all levels to be positive participants in promoting green buildings, including requiring major energy-efficiency upgrades in all buildings, from current norms, both commercial and residential. There’s a good review on iNSnet.
Posted by Jerry Yudelson on 11/06/2006 at 09:51 AM
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Green Building News • (0) Comments • PermalinkThursday, November 02, 2006
Green Real Estate Rocks!
I chaired a panel on “The Emerging Business Case for Green Development” at the NAIOP national real estate conference in San Francisco on November 1st. Two major developers, Vulcan in Seattle, and Corporate Office Properties Trust (COPT) in Columbia, Maryland, presented their approach to green development. A private company, Vulcan Real Estate is essentially doing urban infill in the South Lake Union district of Seattle, while Corporate Office Properties Trust, a public company, is doing suburban office buildings in Maryland, Virginia, Colorado Springs and San Antonio. Both are doing LEED Silver on their projects, and both report capital cost increases of 0.5%. This is exciting news, as it indicates that costs for developing green buildings are going down, as developers get more individual experience with green projects.
Posted by Jerry Yudelson on 11/02/2006 at 04:33 PM
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Green Building News • Company News • (5) Comments • PermalinkTuesday, October 31, 2006
Sitting by the Dock of the Bay
The federal landlord, General Services Administration, has been a leader in sustainable design for the past ten years, through its design excellence program. As a newly appointed national Peer Professional, I was invited to San Francisco to learn about this amazing federal initiative. Every building has been a LEED building since 2000, according to GSA. The new 600,000 sq.ft. Federal building in San Francisco, designed by Thom Mayne of Morphosis in Santa Monica, CA, will have unprecedented amounts of daylighting and natural ventilation and will be perhaps the largest building in the U.S. with operable windows. Under construction now, this building will soon be recognized as one of the most innovative in North America.
Posted by Jerry Yudelson on 10/31/2006 at 11:30 PM
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Green Building News • (0) Comments • PermalinkPage 43 of 46 pages « First < 41 42 43 44 45 > Last »
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