After nearly three years of planning, Taltree ecoVillage by YS Development is gaining a little steam. Located in Redmond, Washington — not more than a bike ride from the company Bill Gates co-founded — Taltree includes a collection of nine modern, green homes built to the highest green building and energy efficiency standards.
With the success of Dockside Green on the other side of the country, according to Canwest News Service, Quebec now plans to increase its investment in sustainable development with a $300 million project of 800 environmentally-friendly housing units. Dubbed Cité Verte, the neighborhood is planned for Quebec City in the Saint-Sacrement neighborhood at the corner of Chemin Sainte-Foy and Avenue Saint-Sacrement.
Several months ago, we profiled all three finalists in the Re:Vision Dallas competition. The purpose of the competition was to design a sustainable urban city block near Dallas City Hall. Of these finalists (and several hundred other entries), the Forwarding Dallas entry has now been announced as the winning design. The off-the-grid block, designed in collaboration between Atelier Data and Moov, is scheduled to break ground in 2011.
Just yesterday, architecture firm RMJM announced plans for a $1 billion, landmark green project for the Atasehir district of Istanbul, Turkey. The Varyap Meridian development is slated for a new residential and business district — and just might transform into a new financial district for Turkey. Of course, the buildings will each seek LEED certification, and if obtained, it could be the first green development of its kind in the country.
This is a story about an interesting collaboration of five different organizations: San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), Clear Channel Outdoor, Inc., Lundberg Design, 3Form, and Konarka. San Francisco needed to replace its existing transit locations, and the SFMTA selected Clear Channel for the contract based upon a transit shelter design by Lundberg Design. So far, the first five of roughly 1,200 new, sustainably designed transit shelters have been installed, and ~400 of the total will be powered by roof integrated photovoltaics. The shelters have wireless internet, NextMuni, and Push to Talk capabilities.
So the question is: "Is it possible for a golf course to be 'green?'"
In October 2008, we discussed celebrity Justin Timberlake's green plans for Big Creek Golf Course, and last week, some of these plans came to fruition. At the press conference on Friday, Timberlake discussed his experiment to green a golf course, and decided that it can successfully be done (see video below). Located just north of downtown Memphis, the newly renovated, par-72 course is now called Mirimichi, which means "place of happy retreat," and features 7,400 yards of play.
