BNIM - AIA FIRM OF THE YEAR To become one of the first two buildings to receive full recognition under the Living Building Challenge, the Omega Center for Sustainable Living in Rhinebeck, New York, had to meet a stringent set of criteria, including generating all its energy from renewable resources, and capturing and treating all water used onsite. — Published 2011.0511
	RESKINNING It's clear we have a problem. We are pouring greenhouse gases into the atmosphere with potentially devastating consequences. — Published 2011.0209
	CLIMATE LETTER TO CONGRESS We think this public letter, signed by 18 prominent climate scientists, coordinated by the Project on Climate Science, gives a succinct and accurate view of the current situation, addressed to our national legislators. Meanwhile, the "Better Buildings Initiative" announced by the White House on February 3, 2011, is an important climate- and architecture-related package moving forward administratively, even as Congress fiddles. —Editors To the Members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate: — Published 2011.0202
	BILLION-SQUARE-FOOT GREENBUILD "The USGBC has just reached a historic milestone," announced Rick Fedrizzi, president and CEO of the U.S. Green Building Council. "We have one billion square feet [93 million square meters] of LEED-certified construction." Speaking to an audience of thousands at the organization's annual Greenbuild conference and expo, held in Chicago in November 2010, Fedrizzi also cautioned the cheering crowd, "We're still at the beginning of the journey." — Published 2011.0126
	DESIGN FOR FLOODING Floods are the most frequent natural disaster in the United States. One in three federal disaster declarations is related to flooding, many as a result of hurricanes affecting heavily populated U.S. coastlines. Flooding is not new. Some flooding is part of the natural hydrologic cycle and the sustenance it brings to life on Earth. — Published 2011.0119
	BETTER ENERGY CODES NOW Update: Local and state building code officials did approve a package of revisions to the commercial section of the 2012 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) in late October, as recommended here. New and renovated buildings constructed in jurisdictions that use the new 2012 IECC are predicted to use 30 percent less energy than those built to current standards. —Editor — Published 2010.1013
	ON 'TRAVEL AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT' News flash: The distance between a residential development location and the metropolitan center is one of the strongest factors influencing how much residents will drive. The density of a neighborhood, in and of itself, turns out to be the weakest of the commonly considered "D" variables, key dimensions of the built environment that influence how — and how much — people move around. — Published 2010.0818
	POSTCARD FROM FRANKFURT Dear ArchitectureWeek, The Passivhaus standard for energy efficiency isn't just for houses. This we learned in Germany recently, on a fascinating tour of green building and design there, organized by the Ecologic Institute environmental think tank with funding from the German government. — Published 2010.0428
	BURJ KHALIFA In 2007, several records fell as the Burj Dubai skyscraper climbed above that city-state's skyline. In May 2007, the Burj surpassed the height of the tallest building in the United States, the Sears Tower (recently renamed the Willis Tower), designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in the 1970s. SOM's Adrian Smith designed the Burj in the early years of the new millennium, but by the time the new skyscraper zoomed past Sears (at 1,450 feet, or 442 meters), Smith had left SOM to start his own firm. — Published 2010.0421
	GREEN GAS STATION? The irony of a LEED-certified gas station includes the fact that U.S. gas stations each currently deliver, on average, about 850,000 gallons of fossil fuel per year, representing about 8,200 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per gas station annually — not to mention the wide range of environmental impacts along the overall petroleum production chain. This station is a beautiful structure — but how green can it be? Does a greenwashing project like this — however elegantly designed as a structure — deserve coverage in a professional architecture magazine? What about the designers of such a project? Author Philip Jodidio discusses the broader context below. Comment online. — Editor — Published 2010.0407

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