GREEN TOP TEN - OFFICE BUILDINGS When Perkins + Will recently sought to move its Atlanta offices, the firm wanted the new facility to serve as a case study for sustainable design. So, the multidisciplinary design firm purchased a 1986 office building down the street, retained as much of the structure as possible, and improved the energy-using systems. The renovated six-story, 79,000-square-foot (7,300-square-meter) building at 1315 Peachtree Street in Midtown Atlanta meets the 2030 Challenge and recently earned LEED Platinum certification. — Published 2012.0502
	NEW ARCHITECTURE IN NEW ORLEANS Located on one of the busiest thoroughfares in the Central Business District of New Orleans, the apartment building at 930 Poydras was designed to translate the dense, communal atmosphere of the French Quarter into a tower. To achieve that effect, architecture firm Eskew+Dumez+Ripple incorporated generous, well designed common spaces into the 250-unit, 21-story building. — Published 2011.0615
	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
	HOUSE AT STONE CREEK CAMP The remote Stone Creek Camp compound near Bigfork, Montana, is entered gradually by descending a narrow gravel road through the deep vegetation of a northern primordial forest. About a mile into the pilgrimage, the forest opens to a dramatic expanse of land, sky, and water. Flathead Lake reaches into the distance. — Published 2010.0825
	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
	ASU POLYTECHNIC GREEN The new academic complex on the Polytechnic campus of Arizona State University (ASU) was built to withstand the insistent, erosive forces of the desert around Mesa, Arizona. "Being out on the eastern part of the valley, the site is very exposed and gets hit very hard with wind and rain," says Beau Dromiack, design leader for RSP Architects, the architect of record for the project. "It requires a durable architecture which we call 'desert tough.'" — Published 2009.0422
	MODERN PREFAB BY MARMOL RADZINER The Rincon 5 by Los Angeles firm Marmol Radziner recalls the pristine residential architecture of Mies van der Rohe, though this guest house may have more in common with the humble American mobile home. — Published 2009.0318
	PREDOCK'S ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL In New Mexico, sandstone walls, granite boulders cracked by tree roots, and time-blurred ruins of past civilizations all rise against a cold cobalt sky — variegated results of sun, wind, culture, and geology. Architect Antoine Predock cites such elements of the U.S. Southwest as influences on his design of the University of New Mexico (UNM) School of Architecture and Planning in Albuquerque. — Published 2008.1210
	AIA HEALTHCARE AWARDS 2008 At the CHA Women & Children's Hospital near Seoul, a softness of natural light, organic elements, and curving form tempers a sleek building of glass, aluminum, and stainless steel. KMD Architects designed the facility, with associate architect yo2 Architects, to provide uncluttered respite from the surrounding neighborhood's visual noise. — Published 2008.0917
	DESERT MUSEUMS IN PLATINUM Another building type shattered the dual-glazed, low-e glass ceiling in April 2008 when the U.S. Green Building Council first awarded LEED Platinum certification to a museum complex. — Published 2008.0813

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