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.

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This modern, award-winning abode is the first LEED Platinum home in Virginia.  Located at 5803 16th Street North in Arlington, the home was built by Metro Green and designed by Kaplan Thompson Architects (the firm that also designed the popular net-zero energy Bright Built Barn).  Although it’s a little bigger than the ones we tend to mention — 3,825 square feet with a tight footprint — I think the home is worth mentioning for a number of reasons.  First, annual heating and cooling costs are $180 and $125 respectively!  In addition, 5803 has the following green elements:

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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:

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This is the first of a new series of articles from Robert McLaughlin, founder of House Virescent and co-founder of KCmodern, who will report on green building efforts in Greensburg, Kansas and Kansas City.

Studio 804, the graduate level design-build studio from the University of Kansas School of Architecture and Urban Planning, followed up its successful Modular 1,2,3,4 houses and the 547 Art Center in Greensburg, Kansas with the 3716 Springfield House.  It's another great looking house seeking not only to be LEED Platinum, but to be off the grid as well.  Also known as the Buffalo House, the Kansas City, Kansas project attempts "a holistic approach to sustainability" and uses active solar and wind technologies to power itself.

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In Bainbridge Island, Washington, there's a slick modern home under construction that was designed by Coates Design for owners Ed and Joanne Ellis.  Although Seattle has roughly 13 LEED Platinum homes as of today, the Ellis Residence has been designed to achieve LEED Platinum and could be the first single-family residence in the Western Puget Sound region to achieve such a lofty designation.  As you can tell from these renderings, the home has a number of active, passive, and green elements in store:

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