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
	HISTORIC PRESERVATION IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA The overwhelming cultural and architectural diversity of the African continent is united by the shared experience of wholesale exploitation and colonization by outside forces. Though many world regions grapple with the complications of post-colonialism, this problem is especially acute in sub-Saharan Africa, where this legacy pervades all contemporary experiences, including heritage conservation. — Published 2009.0916
	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
	ENGINEERING A PEI CANTILEVER - DALLAS CITY HALL Innovative architecture often requires equally innovative engineering and technologies for successful realization. An outstanding example of design and engineering interdependence can be seen in the Dallas City Hall, a landmark building completed in 1977, designed with daring vision by one of the world's leading architectural teams, I.M. Pei & Partners. — Published 2009.0708
	SOLID GREEN PRACTICE Given the urgency of our response to climate change and other environmental needs, is it really okay to keep building new non-green buildings? Here are nine U.S. firms that took sustainability to heart and made green design a centerpiece of their work, and have now taken the next logical step: they have committed to create only green buildings, from here on out. — Published 2009.0506
	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
	AUSSIE ARCHITECTURE AWARDS 2008 The new creative arts building at Brisbane Girls Grammar School in Brisbane, Queensland, combines two contrasting halves into a dynamic whole. Public spaces and circulation are housed in the eastern wing of the Cherrell Hirst Creative Learning Centre, with its columns radiating in a distinctive K shape. The horizontally layered western wing contains flexible teaching spaces for art, music, drama, and technology. The two wings meet at a central atrium intended to foster social interaction and informal learning. — Published 2008.1119
	CLIMATE CHANGE: STRONGER, FASTER, SOONER Recent scientific research — published since the deadline for the latest assessment report from the IPCC — reveals that global warming is accelerating far beyond the 2007 IPCC forecasts. This brief collects some of the key findings, including particular impacts of climate change in Europe. — Published 2008.1112
	HOUSE FOR SWEDEN The 70,000-square-foot (6,500-square-meter) building for the Swedish Embassy in Washington, D.C., is set on a narrow peninsula at the confluence of Rock Creek and the Potomac River. Surrounded by water on three sides, the peninsula faces south and commands spectacular views up and down the Potomac. The prominent site called for an emblematic building through which the essence of Swedish culture, technology, design sensibility, and governance would be expressed. — Published 2008.0910
	BEIJING BIRD'S NEST - ENGINEERING Part One of this two-part series on Beijing National Stadium looked at the project from an architecture perspective. — Published 2008.0827

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