Green Building : Jetson Green

LEED Platinum Ross Street House

This is the Ross Street House in Madison, Wisconsin.  It's located just a mile from the University of Wisconsin campus and the first LEED Platinum home in the entire state!  I first noticed the home in an article on Cadalyst, where author Kenneth Wong discussed the use of ArchiCad software to model the home and neighboring properties for context.  Owner Carol Richard, partner in the Atlanta firm of Richard Wittschiebe Hand, also used modeling to optimize the amount of natural light brought into the home. 

SMU Bush Library Goes for Platinum

Yesterday, First Lady Laura Bush, architect Robert A. M. Stern, and landscape architect Matthew Urbanski unveiled the design of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Texas.  Located on the east side of SMU's campus, the design will complement the consistent Georgian architecture of the rest of the university.  And when complete, the $250 million building will be LEED Platinum certified.  

Five Unique and Green Home Designs

Architect and interior designer Johnna Barrett, Barrett Design, Inc., recently launched a set of five modern green home designs ranging in size from 1,800 to 2,500 square feet.  Offered for sale on Sustain House, the designs are contemporary and provide for energy savings of 20-30% above a home built to code.  The plans also include a LEED checklist designed to facilitate the earning of a LEED Gold or Platinum level certification, assuming an optimal site selection.  Check out these five homes in the Modern Forest Series ... do you have a favorite design?

Green Clayton i-House Set in Kentucky

There's been a lot of talk of the i-House ever since Clayton Homes announced its launch in about January of this year.  The home is contemporary, affordable, and energy efficient.  Landowners Bob and Melinda bought a 37-acre swath of land in 2006, hoping to someday build a home on it and live the good country life.  They're 95 miles from Louisville in western Kentucky and had an i-House delivered just about a month ago. 

New Precautionary List Provides Choices to Harmful Building Products

Last week at Greenbuild 2009, Perkins + Will unveiled its new Precautionary List, which tracks 25 of the most common dangerous chemicals found in commonly used building materials.  The list provides an explanation of the properties of the chemicals with suggested alternatives.  Some of the chemicals on the list include: arsenic, lead, urea formaldehyde, and cadmium, just to name a few. 

An Incredible Expandable Green Prefab

This video of Blu Homes recently hit the Innovation Economy column of The Boston Globe.  In This New House, columnist Scott Kirsner gives us a look at the folding prefab technology that Blu Homes uses for homes built in their Littleton, Massachusetts factory.  The folding style of construction presents an interesting new wrinkle to prefab construction, and Blu is able to save transportation costs by shipping more house and less air. 

Gore Galore, Passive House Trend, Sustainable Zoning, + H2O Opportunities

• Zoning the sustainable city.
• Greenbuild's health-based outcome.
• Al Gore calls for a green building revolution. 
• New report highlights water technology opportunities.
• Balancing energy needs and material hazards.
• California at the forefront of Passive House trend.
• Green building puts some in the red.

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

2009 Top-10 Green Building Products

Yes, it's that time again.  For the eighth year in a row, BuildingGreen has just announced their list of Top-10 Green Building Products.  BuildingGreen sifts the products from new additions to the GreenSpec Directory, a print and online guide that organizes green products according to LEED credits, as well as from coverage in Environmental Building News.  The GreenSpec Directory has over 2,100 products, and these ten are some of the best of what's been added to the directory.  Any favorites among the group?

New AES WindJet 5 Small Wind Turbine Installed in Kansas City [Video]

This month, AES Wind installed its first demonstration AES WindJet 5 turbine in Overland Park, Kansas.  The twin-rotor turbine is rated at 5 kW and was designed to increase efficiency by up to 54% over existing designs.  With a slow rotor speed, the turbine is quieter, more durable, and less likely to create problems with birds. 

Artistically Platinum at Burnside Rocket

This is a beautiful LEED Platinum building located at the corner of East Burnside Street and 11th Avenue in Portland, Oregon.  Dubbed Burnside Rocket, the building is probably most recognizable not for its red dress but for the twenty-four operable art panels -- each of which was painted by a different emerging artist -- that shade the interior spaces.  Since completion on April 2007, the popular building has been fully occupied.