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PORTOLA VALLEY TOWN CENTER
When Portola Valley, California sought an updated, seismically safer civic complex, the existing mid-20th-century wood-and-concrete-block campus was deconstructed and its parts repurposed, along with other salvaged components, to create a sustainable new facility on another portion of the site.
The resulting Portola Valley Town Center is targeted for LEED Platinum certification and was named one of the Top Ten Green Projects for 2009 by the AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE). — Published 2009.1007
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GREEN HOUSE IN GEORGIA
In the American South, a region that tends to laud its heritage, modern can be a hard sell. A residential client often hears neighborhood fears that a new modern dwelling will look "chilly" and won't fit in.
RainShine House by architect Robert M. Cain answers those concerns. Built near downtown Decatur, Georgia, part of metro Atlanta, the LEED Platinum-certified home is bright, welcoming, treads lightly on its site, and respects its neighbors. — Published 2009.0909
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FSC VERSUS SFI
When the Forest Stewardship Council rolled out the world's first "green" wood certification label in 1993, the organization quickly rallied big-box retailers like Home Depot to the cause. The largest do-it-yourself home improvement chain in the United States became a founding member of the FSC and publicly announced that it would soon ensure all of its products came from certified sources. — Published 2009.0812
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POSTCARD FROM MAPLE GROVE
Dear ArchitectureWeek,
Inside and outside, this building comes across initially as nice, but seemingly a bit buttoned down, handsome yet perhaps a bit conventional in affect. — Published 2009.0805
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MAKING BUILDINGS GOOD
The days of making the business case for sustainable design, or even explaining what LEED means and why it is important, have passed. Today's green building challenges have moved to more complicated areas of policy — permitting and politics — and the motivating sense of competition to be "the greenest." — Published 2009.0722
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PELLI'S PLATINUM VISIONAIRE
At first glance, the glossy new 35-story condominium tower slicing into the lower Manhattan skyline doesn't stand out as a beacon of sustainable design. Its sleek form — an extruded curving wedge accented with red terra cotta bands — looks more Ferrari than Prius. And the structure's granite base and travertine lobby walls are elements not usually associated with green building. — Published 2009.0610
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GREEN STIMULUS MULTIPLICATION
What if there were a way for states, cities, and counties to leverage each dollar of federal stimulus money they spend to generate $14 of private spending, create 14 times the number of jobs, reimburse the federal government $3, and get a dollar back to boot?
And what if that economic solution could also help us tackle climate change by constructively attacking building-related carbon emissions? — Published 2009.0506
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GREEN OR GREENWASHED?
What would you call a green building standard that, on balance, tends to interfere with environmental reform more than help?
In March 2009, ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition television show featured the first house in the country to win certification under the new green building standard from the National Association of Home Builders. — Published 2009.0422
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FUNDAMENTALS OF CONSTRUCTING SUSTAINABLY
In the new fifth edition of Fundamentals of Building Construction, Allen and Iano set a new benchmark by incorporating sustainability issues into a mainstream construction textbook, section by section, as in this concise overview from the first chapter. We also look forward to a future edition of their outstanding book in which appropriate sustainability considerations have penetrated every topic and page. — the Editors — Published 2009.0408
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REAL LIFE REGREENING
What of the middle scale — the ten- to 40-acre (four- to 16-hectare) shopping centers with two or more anchors? What kind of impacts and communities can retrofits build at this scale? — Published 2009.0304
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