SOLAR DECATHLON 2011 In the U.S. Department of Energy's recent Solar Decathlon, architecture and engineering students competed to build the most efficient, innovative, economical, and attractive home powered by the sun. — Published 2011.1012
	LEED FOR EXISTING BUILDINGS The Empire State Building made headlines recently for achieving LEED Gold certification following a major green retrofit project that will reduce the skyscraper's energy consumption by more than 38 percent. The building's electric chiller plant was rebuilt, electric meters were installed at the tenant level, and all 6,514 window units were removed, refurbished to improve their energy efficiency, and reinstalled. — Published 2011.1012
	STUDY IN ENGINEERING Architecture as a teaching tool is a very old idea. Think about those cathedrals whose stained glass and sculpture indoctrinated their congregations on the lessons of Christianity. And when Thomas Jefferson was planning the University of Virginia, it is said that he intended the architecture to function partially as text; he had designed the pavilions along the great lawn in different architectural styles to instruct students on Western architecture's greatest achievements. — Published 2011.0824
	AIA TOP GREEN BUILDINGS 2011 The Kubala Washatko Architects faced a real challenge: create a large yet sympathetic addition to a Frank Lloyd Wright landmark. And the First Unitarian Society of Madison, Wisconsin, wanted this new structure to be very green to boot. — Published 2011.0420
	RE-SKINNING AWARDS These five outstanding recladding projects received Zerofootprint Re-Skinning Awards in the first year of this innovative awards program. —Editor 355 11th Street, San Francisco — 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
	GREEN SCIENCE IN SALT LAKE CITY The new Meldrum Science Center, certified LEED Platinum, provides an outstanding teaching and laboratory facility for the Westminster College campus in Salt Lake City, Utah. The airy, daylit interior of the four-story, 60,000-square-foot (5,600-square-meter) building provides a fertile matrix for interactive learning about science — in the curriculum and in the building. — Published 2010.0929
	NEW SAN FRANCISCO ARCHITECTURE SFMOMA commissioned a new sculpture garden for the top of its parking structure, with provisions to connect to the main San Francisco Museum of Modern Art building — a late-20th-century classic that prefigured the wave of museums constructed following the Guggenheim Bilbao in 1997. Jensen & Macy Architects conceived of the garden, which was completed by successor firm Jensen Architects, as a gallery without a ceiling. — Published 2010.0609
	MAKI'S MIT MEDIA LAB For an academic unit that produces such forward-thinking projects as electronic ink, humanoid robots, and a digital opera, one might expect an edgy, geometrically wild building by Zaha Hadid or Coop Himmelb(l)au. But for the new building for the MIT Media Lab, Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki designed a serene example of classic modernism — a glass-and-steel form wrapped in an elegant aluminum screen. — Published 2010.0602
	BECHTLER MUSEUM BY BOTTA Clad in a glazed terra cotta tile that lends it an orange hue and a sleek feel, the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art in Charlotte, North Carolina, shows Swiss architect Mario Botta shifting subtly from his signature brick and stone. — Published 2010.0217

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