If you still think green building is a primarily coastal pursuit, you would be wrong. According to the USGBC, Illinois ranks third in square footage of certified green building per capita in 2011 (2.69 square feet a person) behind the District of Columbia (31.50!) and the state of Colorado (2.74). The leading states are scattered far and wide, with Texas (#8 with 1.99) outranking crunchy California (1.92). New York is even further behind (1.89), just edging out Minnesota’s 1.81 square feet per person.
Quick Clicks> Wren, Denver, Pike, & Livability
London Skyline with Wren's cathedral at right (Courtesy James Cridland/flickr)
Wren’s Dome. Some 300 years ago, Christopher Wren completed St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Now with today’s modern icons transforming the city’s skyline, the Telegraph pays homage to his lasting landmark amongst the new “Shards, Gherkins and distorted walkie-talkie-shaped skyscrapers.”
Green Mile High. The Editor-at-Large brings news that the USGBC has named Denver the “greenest” city in the United States with about 230 LEED registered or certified buildings. Two have earned LEED Platinum since 2010.
Pike Park. StreetsBlog reports that construction has begun on permanent Pike Street pedestrian improvements to be completed this fall in Manhattan. The project replaces temporary materials DOT installed in 2009 to calm traffic along Pike and Allen streets.
Shut Out. Reuter’s has the list of the world’s most (and least) livable cities ranked by the Economist Intelligence Unit. Vancouver topped the list (Harare, Zimbabwe came in last). No city in the United States managed to break into the top ten.
One Bryant Reaches New Heights
There was quite the crowd at the One Bryant Park "opening" last week. (Matt Chaban)
The building’s been up and running for two years, but One Bryant Park wasn’t finished finished until last Thursday night, when the opening party was held in the cavernous lobby and the U.S. Green Building Council awarded the Dursts with the building’s LEED Platinum plaque. Jody Durst kicked things off, thanking everyone for coming, all the people who made the building possible, and the like before introducing Rick Cook, the lead designer for Cook + Fox on the penguin-shaped tower. Before a crowd of a few hundred bankers, real estate types, and other assorted Midtown workadays, Cook probably gave the largest architectural lecture of his career. Read More
So Much for LEED
Everybody's doing it: The garage at the Santa Monica Civic Center, the world's first LEED certified parking structure.
Yesterday, the Times ran a decent though not totally honest and rather obvious piece on how a number of LEED buildings don’t actually save much in the way of energy. The Federal Building in Youngstown, Ohio is taken to task for “rack[ing] up points for things like native landscaping rather than structural energy-saving features.” Well, our dear friend and fellow blogger Chad Smith takes the Gray Lady to task for its disingenuity. Yes, LEED is flexible, maybe sometimes too much so, but that’s precisely what makes it so good, Chad argues, or at least so successful. To wit: Read More
Cap + Trade = Green Building?
The House’s passage of new Energy and Climate legislation (HR 2454: the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009) on Friday means more than just the possible institution of a new cap and trade system for the U.S. According to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the act includes several elements that should spur green building as well. These include: Read More
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