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
	BEIJING BIRD'S NEST - ARCHITECTURE This is the first part of a two-part series about Beijing National Stadium. Part one looks at the stadium from the architects' perspective, part two from the engineers'. In the weeks and months leading up to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, the Chinese government faced a range of complications, from polluted skies to Tibet protests. — Published 2008.0820
	PRESERVING CULTURAL LANDSCAPES Just as the concept of cultural landscape can mitigate polarized views of nature versus artifice, so it can bridge divisive opinions on the relative importance of "architecture" versus "history." — Published 2008.0604
	AUSTRALIAN GOLD FOR RICHARD JOHNSON Over the course of his 38-year career, Richard Johnson, designer of many major cultural buildings in Sydney, has worked on scales ranging from exhibit design to urban design. His projects have included world expo pavilions, museums, embassies, schools, office buildings, hotels, master plans, and landscape design, many with his current firm, Johnson Pilton Walker of Sydney. The Australian architect has been awarded the 2008 Gold Medal for Architecture by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA). — Published 2008.0423
	LES ARCHIVES DÉPARTEMENTALES There is something inherently abstract about the government archive. Storage of old records can too easily be seen as a utility function free of aesthetic aspiration. Compared to a classic library program, an archive might be seen as exaggerating the stacks while minimizing the interacting human element. In some archives this tendency leads to the place where the technical function of storage obliterates the impulse for architecture. — Published 2008.0319

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