BuildingGreen Report

News Brief

June 1, 1999
New Village:

Semiannual magazine edited by Lynne Elizabeth. New Village/ADPSR, 2000 Center Street, Suite 120, Berkeley, CA 94704. Annual (2-issue) subscription is $15 for individuals, $24 for institutions.

An outgrowth of the disarmament movement of the 1970s, Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility has been a diffuse... Read more

News Brief

June 1, 1999

Bonneville Power has contracted with Northwest Power Systems to purchase 110 residential fuel cells. The first ten 3 kW prototype proton-exchange membrane (PEM) units should be delivered this fall. After testing and refinement, NPS will deliver another 100 units. Commercial production is expected in 2002, according to the Fuel Cell Technology... Read more

News Analysis

May 1, 1999
Green Buildings Tax Credit Proposed for New York

On April 9, New York State Governor George Pataki proposed legislation offering income tax credits for the construction or renovation of green buildings ranging from 5% to 8% of the cost of construction or renovation, with additional incentives for the use of photovoltaics and fuel cells. This... Read more

Case Study

May 1, 1999
Performance and Value in British Columbia’s Sun Life Building

Architect Teresa Coady, of Bunting Coady Architects in Vancouver, is gaining a reputation for creating highly energy-efficient and environmentally responsible office buildings on tight, market-driven budgets. Coady attributes her success to the full participation of the design... Read more

News Analysis

May 1, 1999
BP Solarex Becomes World’s Largest PV Manufacturer

Until recently, Amoco and natural gas giant Enron each owned 50% of Solarex, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of photovoltaic (PV) modules. When British Petroleum (BP) purchased Amoco in December 1998 to form BP Amoco, however, the ownership of Solarex came into question. BP... Read more

News Brief

May 1, 1999
Project Case Studies

Buy Recycled Business Alliance, a Partnership of the National Recycling Coalition, Inc., 1727 King St., Ste. 105, Alexandria, VA 22314; 703/683-9025, 703/683-9026 (fax).

The Buy Recycled Business Alliance has compiled approximately 20 project profiles of commercial and institutional facilities that have made... Read more

Product Review

May 1, 1999
Firestone UltraPly TPO Halogen-free Roofing Membrane

Firestone, one of the nation’s largest manufacturers of commercial roofing products, has just introduced an alternative to its single-ply PVC roofing. UltraPly TPO (for thermoplastic polyolefin) is a proprietary compound based on polypropylene and ethylene propylene rubber. Unlike the... Read more

News Brief

May 1, 1999
Newsbriefs

Georgia Tech has announced a new Continuing Education Certificate Series of courses for the summer of 1999 on

Sustainable Facilities and Infrastructure. The series includes:

•a 1-day Primer on June 21;

•a 2-day course on June 22-23 on Assessment Tools and Techniques;

•a 2-day course on June 24-25 on... Read more

News Brief

May 1, 1999

Collins and Aikman Floorcoverings may not get as much publicity for its sustainability initiatives as rival Interface, Inc., but C&A continues to demonstrate their commitment—most recently with the “

Sustainability Laboratory.” The Sustainability Lab is a forum of leading thinkers and activists from various fields, assembled to... Read more

Product Review

May 1, 1999
Two Lines of Decorative Fluorescent Light Fixtures

Finding attractive light fixtures specifically designed for compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) has not been easy. To date, the vast majority of fixtures have been strictly utilitarian. The two product lines described here expand the options—at least with higher-end architectural lighting.... Read more

News Analysis

May 1, 1999
Canadian Government Warns Against Use of Ozone Generators

In the wake of increasing scientific evidence that the dangers outweigh any possible benefits of ozone generators for home use, Health Canada has issued a public warning against such use. The April 13, 1999 announcement cites the adverse health effects associated with exposure to ozone,... Read more

News Brief

May 1, 1999
AIA’s Earth Day Top Ten

The American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment (COTE) continued an annual tradition by releasing, on Earth Day, a list of ten architectural design solutions that have a lasting and positive impact on the built and unbuilt environment. Selections were made by COTE’s executive committee based on... Read more

News Analysis

May 1, 1999
Darker Skies Over New Mexico

The night sky over New Mexico should soon be darker. Governor Gary E. Johnson signed the Night Sky Protection Act into law on April 6, 1999. The purpose of the law is “to regulate outdoor night lighting fixtures to preserve and enhance the state’s dark sky while promoting safety, conserving energy, and preserving... Read more

News Brief

May 1, 1999

King County Commission for Market-ing Recyclable Materials, 400 Yesler Way, Rm. 200, Seattle, WA 98104; 206/296-3740, 206/296-4366 (fax). EnCompass Web site address:

www.metrokc.gov/market/encompass

From Seattle, one of our most “wired” cities, comes an innovative, Web-based resource profiling green buildings in King County and the... Read more

Feature

May 1, 1999

Building green costs too much.” “I’d like to include green features, but the budget just isn’t high enough.” “Green building is just for wealthy clients.” All too often we hear these claims. And, indeed, a lot of elements of environmentally responsible building

do cost more—at least in the short term. But many of the design and... Read more

News Brief

May 1, 1999
Awards & Competitions

Several environmental projects are featured in

Architecture magazine’s April 1999 awards issue. One of the projects receiving a citation in the

46th Annual P/A Awards was a Hay Barn and Stable in Somis, California by the Los Angeles firm SPF:a, constructed of a light steel frame with hay bales around... Read more

News Brief

May 1, 1999

Worldwatch Paper 144, by Gary Gardner and Payal Sampat, December 1998. Worldwatch Institute, 1776 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20036; 202/452-1992;

www.worldwatch.org (Web site). Paperback, 60 pages, single copy $5 plus $4 shipping in North America.

The Worldwatch Institute is well known for its pithy, factual, and well... Read more

Product Review

May 1, 1999
Solenium—the First Resilient Textile Flooring

 

In April 1999 Interface released Solenium, a revolutionary new floorcovering product that was originally slated for release last fall (see EBN Vol. 7, No. 8). Interface calls the product a “resilient textile flooring,” bridging the divide between carpet and resilient flooring. As... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 1999

by Nelda Matheny and James R. Clark, 1998. International Society of Arboriculture, P.O. Box 3129, Champaign, IL 61826; 217/355-9411,

www.ag.uiuc.edu/~isa. Paperback, 184 pages, $45 plus $7 shipping & handling

Though written primarily for arborists (tree specialists),

Trees and Development is an important reference book for... Read more

News Brief

April 1, 1999
Newsbriefs

For more than 30 years, the

Yale School of Architecture has required first-year students to design and actually construct a building. Working in teams, students come up with designs and submit them to a design competition, which is judged by the School of Architecture faculty. The entire class then refines the winning design... Read more