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I opened up the local newspaper today, and much to my surprise, there's news that the first, mid-rise container building in the U.S. is planned for downtown Salt Lake City. The project was designed by none other than Adam Kalkin, container architecture expert, and will be called City Center Lofts. The green, ultra-modern condo building will have eight units and a ground level art gallery.
Imagine you are tasked with creating an innovative skyscraper that takes into consideration historical and social context, the existing urban fabric, human scale, and the environment. Your skyscraper design can take any height or shape on any site in the world, but it must be technologically feasible and environmentally responsible. Any ideas? Evolo Architecture held a skyscraper competition with the above constraints and announced three winners and six mentions. Of those nine, Daekwon Park has received some attention in the last week. It's a pretty interesting concept. I also like the escraper by Sohta Mori and Yuichiro Minato.
Escraper connects three twisted buildings in a modern, but natural way. It has six major green spaces or parks, as well as a mini garden on each level.
*WIR = Week in Review; a Saturday showcase of excellent links.
Flat out, this news is big! CoStar just released details of their study of LEED and Energy Star buildings, and I have to say, I was surprised by the numbers. They analyzed roughly 1,300 LEED and Energy Star buildings representing 351 million square feet of commercial buildings. The green buildings were compared with non-green properties of similar size, location, class, tenancy, and year built characteristics to extrapolate the economic case for green buildings. The result:
The April 08 issue of Metropolitan Home features an article entitled Urban Eco-tecture by green guru Eric Corey Freed. The focus of the article is an 8,500 sf warehouse in San Francisco's SoMA District. Jason Shelton and Amy Shimer bought the warehouse and hired architect Anne Fougeron to convert the place into a modern live/work location. The result is an intriguing fusion of modernism, sustainability, and adaptive reuse.
There was a fantastic article in the NY Times on a positive energy home dubbed Solar Harvest. Solar Harvest generated more electricity in 2006 than what it took from the grid, so Xcel Energy sent the owner a check for $8.45. Nice! Solar Harvest was built by Eric Doub and his company, EcoFutures, in Boulder, Colorado for $1.38 million, including land.
[+] Solar Harvest Flickr Album
This is Tom Kundig's first condo project, Eleven Eleven East Pike -- a retail- residential use, urban infill structure in Seattle's Pike/Pine neighborhood. Details of the project are being released today, but I have some inside bits of information for sustainability enthusiasts. In addition to being an urban infill project, Eleven Eleven East Pike will be Built Green 3-star certified and have a Walk Score of 98 (tops = 100). Which means sustainability is integrated with the culture and soul of the neighborhood. Owners will have an opportunity to use their cars less and stay active in the community.
The work of Tom Kundig is highly respected and widely celebrated. I see the same for Eleven Eleven East Pike, which will have five floors of residential (27 homes), ground level retail, and two floors of subsurface parking.
Check out these cool tile tapestry patterns from Heath Ceramics. I'm partial to the flemish bond gunmetal (shown top left and below). Heath Ceramics has a factory/kiln in Sausalito, California where they create these incredible tiles. Their Tapestry Collection has three patterns: argyle, stitch, and flemish bond, which can be face-mounted in 12x12" squares. Prices vary depending on the pattern, but if you're looking for a specialty application, try the overstock tiles offered at 75% off retail.
This is Oulu Bar & EcoLounge in Williamsburg, home to Brooklyn's first living wall installation. The 2,500 sf building was designed by Evangeline Dennie and it's currently seeking LEED Gold certification. You'll find a few different photos below, including a before shot, for your viewing pleasure.
What do you think? The green wall makes quite the design statement, doesn't it? It's tough to deny the modern appeal of vertical greenery, I say.
Maine Cottage is a Maine-based furniture company specializing in colorful, fun furniture. The company, which did not start out as an environment focused company, is actually quite green. 90% of their products are made by artisans in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and North Carolina. Of course, local production means less travel and fewer harmful emissions.
