Green Building : Jetson Green

Wetland Discovery Point Takes Platinum

This newly constructed 3,200 square-foot building, Wetland Discovery Point, is the third LEED Platinum certified structure in the state of Utah, making it one of the greenest buildings around.  WDP is part of the Utah Botanical Center of Utah State University and provides an indoor / outdoor learning experience for over 4,000 school children each year.  The building was designed by ajc architects and built by Big-D Construction, and here are some of its green elements:

New Service: Green Building Jobs

You may have noticed in Saturday's Week in Review, but we're now rolling out a free, beta green building jobs service.  We've added a link to the navigation above and already published a couple great looking job opportunities.  The market can be tough on all of us -- whether you're a company in need of remarkable employees or an employee in need of remarkable opportunities -- make sure to use Greener Jobs. 

Top 10 Green Building Products [2009]

As the magazine does every year, Sustainable Industries has just published its list of the Top 10 Green Building Products of 2009.  Selections are chosen based upon environmental performance, scalability / market impact, innovation, design aesthetic, value, and compatibility with LEED.  Download the guide at Sustainability Industries.  Here are the top ten:

Frugal Smart LEED Discovery Center

This is a new urban nature center, the Discovery Center at the Chattahoochee Nature Center (CNC), which will open Saturday, June 20, 2009.  Although the initial goal was to achieve LEED Silver, the 10,000 square-foot facility will likely achieve LEED Gold as a result of an early and collaborative effort by owner CNC, architect Lord, Aeck & Sargent, landscape architect EDAW, and general contractor Genoa Construction, et al.  Here's what it's all about:

Green LDS Church History Library

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was kind enough to send us an invite to their media day for the super fresh Church History Library.  This cutting-edge building is the embodiment of a mammoth effort spanning several years -- 15 years of planning, 4 years of construction, and countless hours tagging, archiving, and moving millions of artifacts and records to the new location.  With several temperature controlled and sub-zero vaults, a building like this would generally use a lot of energy, but the design prioritized energy-efficiency and LEED certification.

LEED Platinum Newark Center, Energy Conservation by the Numbers

Green building detractors often point to the lack of hard numbers on how green buildings actually perform in the real world.  As time goes on we'll have a better information as to how all LEED Platinum buildings perform, but for now, we have this success story.  Ohlone College's Newark Center for Health Sciences and Technology is celebrating a year of energy conservation and has the numbers to back it up.  The 128,000 square-foot facility was completed in early 2008, and received LEED Platinum in August of 2008.  It's the first community college to receive such a high certification, and after operating for one year, here's what the numbers tell us:

Super Sustainable Dallas City Block

This whole thing started when Urban Re:Vision teamed up with the City of Dallas to create a sustainable city block.  The location was announced last December, and thereafter, teams from all across the world participated in a competition to design the greenest city block in the country.  Now, three winners have been announced (see below), and of these three, one will be chosen for construction.  Groundbreaking is set for Fall 2010.

Project Frog Breaks Ground on Net Zero Energy Watkinson School

Last November, Project FROG demonstrated their FROG Zero classroom at Greenbuild 2008, and it was quite impressive.  Now, the company has a couple projects in the works, and they just broke ground on a new Center for Science and Global Citizenship at the Watkinson School in Hartford, Connecticut.  The 4,000 square-foot science center will generate more energy within its footprint than is required to operate the systems.  To do so, it will rely on some of the following active and passive strategies:

Old 1920s Cottage Remodeled to Award Winning Green Duplex

Earlier this month, Hardwick G.C. of Orlando received a Multifamily Remodeling Project of the Year award from the NAHB for converting an old single-family bungalow into a green duplex.  The existing 1920s home was about 800 square feet, and the renovation added about 250 square feet and a garage.  In addition, an attached home of about 2150 square feet (and its own garage) was added to the rear and second floor.  Here are some of the green features of Amherst Place:

World's First Active House in Denmark

The Guardian just published an interesting article about the world's first Active House.  An Active House, as compared to a super low-energy Passive House, is a highly efficient home that captures more energy than the occupants need for heat and power.  In particular, this Denmark Active House should generate enough electricity over 30 years to cancel out the energy costs of building it.  And it operates like a machine: a computer monitors the temperature and climate of the interior and opens, closes, and adjusts windows accordingly.