Proximity Hotel seems to have found a way to deliver a comfortable, luxury-type experience and still be one of the greenest hotels in the country.  It was built to use roughly 36% less energy and 30% less water than a comparable hotel.  Proximity Hotel also heats over half the building’s water with roughly 4,000 sf of solar thermal panels on the roof.  In the video embedded below, Dennis Quaintance, Chief Design Officer of Proximity Hotel, mentions that the savings from the solar thermal investment is about $20k per year. He also talks about the hotel’s innovative elevator, which is the first Regenerative Drive Otis Gen2 elevator in North America — it captures energy while going down and uses it while going up.

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Update 7/24/08 – The Method Cabin is now complete!

We have a new company here, Method Homes, that just announced the construction of their first prefab model, The Method Cabin.  Method Homes is targeting LEED-H Gold certification for the five-module abode, which will be about 1811 sf with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.  I’ve been navigating through the blog a little bit, studying the details of this first design, and I definitely like what I see so far.  Designed by Seattle architectural firm, Balance Associates, The Method Cabin will have that trendy cantilevered roof and efficient, functional floor plans.  It will also have some nice green touches with Kliptech Ecotop countertops, Bamboo Hardwoods cabinets and flooring, and the Warmboard radiant sub floor. 

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In the process of digging the huge Diamond Valley Lake Reservoir in Southern California, some significant fossils were discovered.  The fossils have been sitting around for several years waiting for a super-modern museum to call home, so The Center for Water Education Foundation and the Western Center Community Foundation commissioned Lehrer Architects to design such a place.  The result is the Water + Life Museums, a complex that just so happens to claim a right to being the world’s first LEED Platinum certified museum. 

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We talked about renderings and plans for the Holy Cross Project back in August last year, but it’s now becoming a reality.  The first home is finished and Global Green plans to open it to the public this coming May.  When finished, the entire project will have four more homes and a 18-unit apartment complex — all of it low-income and green, too.  Global Green is shooting for LEED Platinum on everything and expects homes to use 75% less energy than a similar, typical building. 

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Nau is a budding clothing products company that is committed to sustainability and social awareness in various facets of its business.  They build very cool stores (pictured above) and build them green.  I noticed their website has some info on LEED certification, and just had to use their conversation as a partial vehicle to continue to discuss the green building certification system.  Here’s what they said: 

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