Looks like Chicago city planners have big ideas for a 1140 acre swathe of land in South Chicago.  The spot is former U.S. Steel land, and planners have been mulling development options for the spot since about 2000.  Now, they'd like to submit a proposal for a green development with sustainable neighborhoods, green buildings, street cars, and bicycle paths, etc.  Officially referred to as the "South Chicago LEED Neighborhood Development Initiative," the plan would be rated by the USGBC's LEED-ND pilot program and would unravel over roughly 20-30 years. 

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Some of you may be in Park City for the Sundance Film Festival this week, and while you're in town, you might want to go check out some green projects.  Probably the greenest building in Utah is located near Kimball Junction — Swaner EcoCenter — it's a must tour facility and nature preserve.  Another project worth checking out, and maybe worth buying, is a three townhouse community called Tahoma.  With Tahoma, a local developer took a dive into green development waters and ended up achieving the first Built Green Utah certified residential development in Park City.  Tahoma was developed by Baker Street Properties, and based upon my communications with the developer, they're ready to build even greener for future projects. 

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Talk about a serious transformation!  VaST, a Colorado-based a+d firm, purchased an old porn shop earlier this year — the building was located close to Boulder — and completely gutted the place.  Now, you wouldn’t even know it used to have super skeezy viewing booths.  VaST took all that out and set a new standard in using green materials, particularly salvaged and unique materials.  Located at 1720 15th Street in Boulder, Candy Shop is the right kind of place for a budding green professional or socially aware independent looking for some co-working space.  Plus, they’ve just added solar panels to supply a portion of the building’s energy … check out the particulars of the renovation:

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