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Casa Verde: Michelle Kaufmann's Quick Construction
Whether she's making cool eco craft projects or designing innovative homes, Michelle Kaufmann is definitely one of my eco heroes.
Michelle designs green, prefab homes that are both beautiful and cost-effective. These homes are guaranteed to achieve either gold or platinum LEED ratings, the two highest ratings from the US Green Building Council.
Casa Verde: Ronald McDonald House Goes Green
While I may have some criticisms of LEED, the USGBC green building program, there's no question that the program is an important step in the right direction. Hopefully, thanks to green building guidelines and programs, green building will someday soon become a standard part of any construction project, and not an afterthought.
Austin, TX, has the oldest regional green building program in the country, with its Energy Star program established in 1985, and the green building program evolving from it six years later.
Casa Verde: A Modern Green Home
LivingHomes builds houses that appeal to the eco-minded modernists of the world. The designs of the homes are focused on simple, sustainable, modernism, and start at $185 a square foot. LivingHomes are made with natural, non-toxic, and sustainably derived materials, and are built in specialized factories that ensure superior quality, lower construction cost, a quick turnaround, and minimal waste.
Red Stag Supper Club: A Green Design
The Red Stag Supper Club, located in hipster hub MInneapolis, Minnesota, will be the first restaurant to be LEED certified. LEED? What the heck is LEED, you ask?
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Michelle Kaufmann Designs Closing Doors
I am very sad to report that Michelle Kaufmann Designs is closing, due in part to the credit crisis and the closing of factories used to manufacture MKD homes. The green prefab firm, located in Oakland, CA, designed homes guaranteed to achieve either gold or platinum LEED ratings, the two highest ratings from the US Green Building Council. Homes such as the Glidehouse and mkLotus won MKD international acclaim, and were proof that prefab and green were a natural fit.
In the News: Green Architecture Has a Ways to Go
Interested in getting the lowdown about green architecture? Then I suggest you read the Newsweek article, "The Bad News About Green Architecture." For a good while now, the reporting of green architecture practices has been nothing less than greenwashed, and I've been waiting for a mainstream publication to address our country's problem with its perception and definition of "green" architecture.
Casa Verde: America's Greenest Town May Be in Kansas
When a gigantic, 1.7-mile wide tornado barreled through Kansas last May, it zeroed in on the town of Greensburg. Whipping its way down Main Street, the tornado virtually destroyed the town while killing 11 of its 1,400 citizens. The town is still struggling to rebuild, but hopes are high.
Coveted Crib: A Modern Farmhouse
If you happen to be traveling through the Green Mountains of Vermont, you may be taken off guard by a decidedly modern interpretation of the classic farmhouse. Set on 44 acres of rolling hills and open farmland, this passive solar house, which won the 2008 AIA Vermont Honor Award in Sustainability and Design, manages to successfully marry vernacular architectural traditions with modern sensibilities.
The home, which was designed by Pill-Maharam Architects, has a laundry list of green features, including a LEED platinum rating, a 5+ Energy Star rating, a ground source heat pump, high efficiency lighting and appliances, and a 10KW wind turbine that supplies all of the energy for the home's heating, hot water, lighting, and appliances.
The Greenest Building in the World
As if I didn't have enough reason to be proud of my home state of Wisconsin—it's also now home to the greenest building in the world.
The Aldo Leopold Legacy Center has received Platinum LEED Certification, the highest possible recognition for green buildings in the United States. Following a rigorous assessment, LEED awarded the Legacy Center 61 points, more than any other building yet rated in the world.
Leo Trades in Pacific Coast View, Lowers Carbon Footprint
Leonardo has finally closed on the eco-friendly Battery Bark Condo that he went to contract to purchase back in April, paying nearly $3.7 million. But, ever the environmental advocate, DiCaprio isn't swooping up energy-hogging properties left and right. He's made room for this purchase in his real estate portfolio and his wallet by putting his 2,374-square-foot, two-bedroom, two-bath midcentury oceanfront Malibu home on the market for nearly $9 million.
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