10 Best Green Buildings - 2011 winners

10 best green buildings? Architects pick 2011 winners

By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY

A house in Racine, Wis., on the edge of Lake Michigan, is one of American Insitute of Architect's top 10 winners this year for sustainable architecture. It takes advantage of the lake breeze and the site's solar exposure to provide natural cross-ventilation and daylight.

CAPTION

By Farshid Assassi

Buildings that conserve water and energy and use recycled, non-toxic materials don't have to look like boring boxes. To see jaw-dropping possibilities, check out the American Institute of Architects 2011 winners for sustainable architecture.

The 15th annual COTE Top Ten Green Projects program celebrates buildings that not only use few resources but don't harm their sites, have healthy indoor air quality and connect to public transit.

An elementary school in Greensburg, Kan. -- largely destroyed by a 2007 tornado -- also won an AIA award. It had a wind turbine that provides some of its power (the rest comes from a wind farm outside of town).

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By Farshid Assassi

The winners this year include a school in Greensburg, Kan., a town that was nearly flattened by a May 2007 tornado. The school has a 50-kilowatt wind turbine that provides some of its power (the rest comes from a wind farm outside of town).

Another is Lance Armstrong's LIVESTRONG Foundation in Austin, Texas, which used 88% of the materials from a 1950s warehouse to help build -- on the same site -- a multi-functional office space for 62 employees.

Also among the top 10 is a house in Racine, Wis., that won the top or platinum rating from the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program. On a narrow lot in an old city neighborhood at the edge of Lake Michigan, it takes advantage of the lake breeze and the site's solar exposure to provide natural cross-ventilation and daylight. The AIA's other seven winners include:

Also an AIA winner for sustainable architecture is Lance Armstrong's LIVESTRONG Foundation in Austin, Texas, which reused 88% of the materials from a 1950s warehouse to build -- on the same site -- a multi-functional office space for 62 employees.

CAPTION

By Casey Dunn

1. Cherokee Studios, Los Angeles
   This urban infill, mixed-use, market-rate housing project was designed to incorporate green design as a way of marketing a green lifestyle. The design maximizes the opportunities of the mild, Southern California climate with a passive cooling strategy.
2. First Unitarian Society Meeting House, Madison, Wis.
   The 20,000-square-foot addition to the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed national historic landmark Meeting House is approximately 40% more efficient than a comparable base case facility. The new building design features recycled-content and locally sourced materials.
3. High Tech High Chula Vista, Chula Vista, Calif.
   This public charter school serving 550 students in grades 9-12 with an approach rooted in project-based learning uses a building management system that integrates a weather station and monitors and controls the lighting and mechanical systems of the facilities, in addition to the irrigation and domestic water systems.
4. LOTT Clean Water Alliance, Olympia, Wash.
   While most sewage treatment plants are invisible to their communities and separated by a chain link fence, the LOTT Clean Water Alliance Regional Service Center is a visible and active participant in the public life of Olympia. ...Methane generated from the plant's waste treatment process is used in a cogeneration plant to generate electricity and heat.
5. Research Support Facility (RSF) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, Colo.
   With the goal of creating the largest commercial net-zero energy structure in the country, the building is meant to serve as a blueprint for a net-zero energy future and influence others in the building industry to pursue low energy and net-zero energy performance.
6. Step Up on 5th, Santa Monica, Calif.
   This mixed-use project provides 46 studio apartments of permanent affordable housing and supportive services for the homeless and mentally disabled population in the heart of downtown Santa Monica. The density of the project is 258 dwelling units/acre, which exceeds the average density of the Manhattan borough of New York City by more than 10%.
7. Vancouver Convention Centre West, Vancouver, British Columbia
   As the world's first LEED Platinum convention center, this project is designed to bring together the complex ecology, vibrant local culture and urban environment, embellishing their inter-relationships through architectural form and materiality. The living roof -- at 6 acres it is the largest in Canada -- hosts some 400,000 indigenous plants.
   
   Source :- USA TODAY