Green Building Blog - Jetson Green

Chipotle Green Restaurant Uses On-site Wind Power

How good would a chicken (or veggie, if that's your style) burrito bowl taste, knowing that it's been cooked by the power of on-site green energy?  I haven't tried one yet, but I can only imagine ... Chipotle Mexican Grill will be opening a green restaurant in Gurnee, Illinois, which restaurant features a prominent six-kilowatt wind turbine.  Although mostly a symbol for the company's efforts to create more environmentally friendly store designs, the turbine will generate ~10% of the store's power.  The Gurnee Chipotle will have some of the following green features:

Justin Timberlake Seeking LEED Platinum for Golf Course Buildings

Justin Timberlake (you know: singer, actor, songwriter, producer, etc.) is a single-digit-handicap golfer, and loves the sport.  Recently, he noticed that the first course he ever played golf on as a kid was going up for auction for development.  Originally called Woodstock Hills, Timberlake was able to buy Big Creek with a consortium of owners.  Soon after purchase, Timberlake discovered he could "green" the course, so he decided to build the upscale clubhouse, cart cottage, and maintenance facility to LEED Platinum certification standards. 

Nubanusit Could Be Greenest Neighborhood in the Northeast

Maybe you've never considered living in a cohousing* situation, but some of the greenest neighborhoods in the country are trying to use this pattern of living for their communities.  The images in this article show a peaceful, cohousing condominium community called Nubanusit Neighborhood & Farm.  Nubanusit is located in Peterborough, New Hampshire, and all the homes will be super green -- that is, if they're all not LEED Platinum certified.  Imagine that: 29 homes on 70 rolling acres and all of them are LEED Platinum certified!

SF Performing Arts Center LEED Design

Earlier this month, the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design announced a total of 66 buildings as winners of the prestigious and coveted American Architecture Awards program.  One of those buildings was Tom Eliot Fisch's and LMN Architects' design for the City College of San Francisco's (CCSF) new performing arts center.  As you can tell from the rendering, it's going to be a beautiful, contemporary structure with tons of green features and natural lighting.  Scheduled to be complete in Spring 2010, the performing arts center will target LEED Gold certification with some of the following features:

Weatherford Place Aims for Net-Zero Energy and Platinum Certification

Weatherford Place is a small community of eight town and country homes in Roswell, Georgia.  It's seeking LEED for Homes Platinum certification on all homes, as well as Platinum certification for the community under the LEED for Neighborhood Development Pilot Program -- a goal that could make it one of the first all Platinum communities in the county.  But beyond certification, Weatherford Place homes will be 100% more energy efficient than typical houses and 50% more energy efficient than houses built to the 2006 Energy Code.

BrightBuilt Barn Going Net-Zero, Super-Efficient & LEED Platinum

I'm starting think that maybe, just maybe, the modern farmhouse could be a gateway to contemporary for many of you.  What do you think, pretty clean design, right?  The BrightBuilt Barn was designed by Kaplan Thompson Architects, factory built in components by Bensonwood (mentioned by Josh Stack in comments recently), and is being built by Gibson Design/Build as we speak.  It was designed to be net-zero and super green -- the home will participate in the Living Building Challenge and, in all likelihood, qualify for LEED Platinum certification.  Geez!  So what's in store for this 700 sf studio home:

Father of LEED Takes Future Serious

Check out this video with Rob Watson, a green building leader often referred to as the Father of LEED.  Watson discusses general green building and current market trends.  Towards the end of the video, he kind of eases into a discussion of Serious Materials, but that's okay because Serious Materials is a legit company in terms of sustainable building materials.  Most recently, Serious Materials took the category award at 2008 GoingGreen 100 for green building materials.  I've transcribed some of the interesting quotes from this video below:

World's First Dual LEED Platinum Building

There's an interesting story to the green building certification of the historic Mutual Building in Lansing, Michigan.  Not only did it receive LEED Platinum certification in both the LEED-CS and LEED-CI ratings systems, making it the world's first building to do so, it's also an historic building that's been preserved, renovated, and certified.  People will, in all likelihood, discuss the building's double platinum certification, but I think it is more commendable and noteworthy that they did all that in the context of a building listed on the National Register of Historic Landmarks.  It's quite incredible ...

Muffler Shop Converted to First LEED-NC Architect Office in Georgia

As an interesting example of adaptive reuse, I thought it would be fun to showcase the design of Menefee + Winer's office in Atlanta, Georgia.  Located at 1075 Brady Avenue near Georgia Tech, the 4,100 sf building used to be bland, gray muffler shop (see bottom) -- but now with its vibrant colors and fierce shape, how about the transformation?  This LEED Silver building is also, interestingly, the first LEED-NC certified architect's office in Georgia.  Here are a few things they incorporated through the gut rehab:

Eco-friendly Founding Farmers Restaurant Seeking LEED Gold in D.C.

The green design and sustainability movement is gradually taking over all types of real estate and the restaurant industry is no different.  Later this month, and pending certification, Founding Farmers is expected to become Washington D.C.'s first LEED Gold restaurant.  It will also operate as a Certified Green Restaurant and serve sustainably farmed, locally produced food and products.