It's that time of year again — the AIA Committee on the Environment ("COTE") just published its annual list of Top Ten Green Projects.  There's some definite superstars in the group, and we've mentioned a few of them already, including the Chartwell School and Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation.  Perkins+Will has two projects in the group, but this just confirms what we already know: the firm is a leader in sustainable design.  Below, we've included direct links to AIA case studies for each project, as well as a link to the lead architect. 

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Today the Cascadia Green Building Council published their findings of a financial study of Living Buildings.  The study — officially named The Living Building Financial Study: The Effects of Climate, Building Type and Incentives on Creating the Buildings of Tomorrow — is extensive and we're still going through all the details.  But there's one major takeaway that I noticed: investing in Living Buildings is the financially smart thing to do, especially for institutions, corporations, and homeowners looking to hold on to their real property assets for more than a few years.  The study was put together by Cascadia, SERA Architects, Skanska USA Building, Gerding Edlen Development, Interface Engineers, and the New Buildings Institute (referred to below as "contributors").  Let's look a little deeper. 

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Remember when we mentioned project7ten?  We were probably one of the earliest to mention the wildly popular home, so we were interested to notice that some of the same folks behind project7ten just finished another green home called 737conserve.  Located at 737 Milwood Avenue and designed by Patrick Tighe, 737conserve has the same warm and modern feel that project7ten has.  Here are some photos and a list of of its many green elements:

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I’ve been talking with LABhaus, a new prefab company, about their affordable modular homes.  LABhaus set out to create a progressive, modern home that mainstream consumers could actually afford.  In the process, they ended up creating not just one home but three: Slide, Stretch, and ecoVilla.  The models range in size from 1693 to 5071 square feet and in price from $199,900 to $649,000.  Here’s what you can expect from a LABhaus home:

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• Five ways to build affordable, Energy Star houses.
• Does sustainability trump historic value?
• Sprawl collides with LEED Platinum certification.
• Green banks sprout from the ruins of the economic crisis.
• Baseball stadiums take a swing at energy efficiency.
• Hundreds of federal buildings will be greener.
• Cities are cleaning and greening urban alleys.
• Moving beyond Sustainability 101.

Follow @jetsongreen on Twitter for more news, links, and commentary.