We've mentioned tons of prefab homes, but PLACE Houses is a new one for us.  This green home is a prefab design by PLACE Houses, a company offering smart, affordable, and green prefab designs to owners in the Pacific Northwest (and soon, the rest of the country).  Of note, the 2,800 square foot home is a far cry from the 5,400 square foot design another architect proposed, reports Metropolitan Home.  And in the end, the northwest modern residence incorporated a number of sustainable features:

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If you're the kind of reader that still likes the tactile feel of a good book or magazine, you might as well go give a couple magazines a quick look.  The March 2009 issue of Dwell focuses on the theme "Smarter, Greener, More Daring," while the April 2009 issue of Metropolitan Home looks at Green Renovations and the Greenest Little House in America.  There's plenty of high-quality reading material packed into both … well worth the combined cost of $10.98, if you buy them together. 

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Recently, we mentioned reclaimed cardboard art, the kind of stuff that's perfect for your green boardroom, but here's another neat idea, this time from Studio Crank.  It's also a comically ironic idea: a waste paper basket made of 100% recycled cardboard.  It's called the "Chuck" Waste Paper Basket based on the notion that tons of reusable materials are typically chucked into landfills. 

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Just recently, the new headquarters for the Barton Group was awarded LEED Platinum, a noteworthy achievement for an historic building originally built in 1865.  The building appears to be only the seventh Platinum building in New York (and the 105th in the country) and was a finalist for ED+C's 2008 Excellence in Design Awards.  The 16,000 square foot building now has a green roof, energy-efficient windows, a raised floor for air and electrical, a rainwater collection system, and a number of other green features:

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Currently, the only LEED Platinum (non-home) project in Kentucky is a visitor center, and this commercial building, The Green Building, could just become the next.  Located in the East Market District of Louisville Kentucky, an area increasingly being referred to as “NuLu,” or New Louisville, The Green Building is a major renovation of an old building.  Originally built 110 years ago as a dry goods store, the 14,000 sf masonry structure now houses a café, gallery, record label, book store, and more.  Its owners are Augusta and Gill Holland, transplants from New York who fell in love with the distressed East Market District.

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