Compact Comfort
Ziba’s JumpSeat elegantly bridges a design gap between folding chairs and theater seats.
Brian Libby
Tribal Plan
Holst Architecture shapes new offices to reflect Ziba’s unique culture of design.
Follow the LEEDer
Portland’s Gerding Edlen Development continues to break new ground in green design.
Tokyo Style
Uniqlo hires Japan’s hottest retail designer to apply his distinctive brand of showmanship to the company’s new Soho flagship store.
The Art of Compromise
A LEED Platinum rehab in Portland finds a balance between preservation and sustainability.
Kyoto’s Adaptive Advice
An international conference focuses on practical designs for aging societies.
Going the Google Route
The challenge was a relatively simple one: take the bus near my home in southeast Portland, Oregon, across the Willamette River to a laboratory just north of downtown on Naito Parkway, about five miles away. I was to plan the trip using Google Transit Trip Planner, a pilot program being tested here that is intended to act as a one-stop…
Feathering the Office
Artist Patrick Dougherty builds a nest where Portland creatives can hatch new ideas.
Returning to Its Roots
With a new block-size park by Herbert Dreiseitl, Portland restores a piece of its natural environment.
Hilton Aims to Become First LEED-Rated Hotel
Of the hundreds of building projects that have earned the U.S. Green Building Council’s coveted Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating since the program’s inception in 2000, not one has been a hotel. But the new Hilton Vancouver in Vancouver, Washington might soon change that. The 226-room facility, which opened in June, contains an impressive raft of sustainable-design…
Paint by Letters
Architect Randy Higgins makes over a Portland art school with a fresh coat of paint.
Is China Ready to Embrace Sustainability?
Over the next two decades, China’s urban population is projected to increase by 250 million people; these city dwellers use up to 3.5 times more energy than rural denizens. Yet China has relatively few fuel resources, and burning coal—its most plentiful fossil fuel—has polluted the country and contributed to the acid rain that falls in one-third of Chinese cities. Admitting…
LEED Green-Building Standards Travel to Canada
Although the Leadership in Energy and Design (LEED) rating system was created by the U.S. Green Building Council, it no longer is restricted to the States. In July, the Canadian province of British Columbia became the first non-American licensee of the LEED system, to be known as LEED-BC. “Western Canada is much like the western U.S. when it comes to…
Greenguard: A Rating System for Indoor Air Quality
As the ideas put forth by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system slowly gain mainstream acceptance, the organization is expanding its program to apply to other facets of architecture, including commercial interiors, operating systems, and core and shell projects. But private-sector organizations are also weighing in, creating their own rating systems for…
Interiors Are the USGBC’s Latest Realm
For all the U.S. Green Building Council has done to advance sustainable building with its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program, reality is that since new buildings comprise less than five percent of the total construction market, the organization’s influence is considerably limited. But with its new LEED program for commercial interiors, dubbed LEED-CI, the USGBC is poised to…
The USGBC Tries Out Its New Interiors Program—On Itself
As it prepares to add a new Commercial Interiors (CI) program to its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) ratings system, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has become, in a sense, its own client. In November 2003, the organization began an expansion of its Washington, D.C. headquarters; it included the project as one of more than 100 pilot…
Safeway’s Portland Store Redefines ‘Green’ Grocer
Long before big-box retailers were common, Safeway was paving the way with its own cavernous, super-sized grocery stores, complete with sprawling parking lots. Recently, though, the international chain has taken its first steps toward a more progressive urban future by building its first outlet in a mixed-use facility. The 47,000-square-foot store—located in downtown Portland, Oregon—has apartments located above it and…
A Glass of Green
For Oregon vintners Sokol Blosser, a sustainable cellar makes pinot noir taste better.
Sky Lab
Simulations at Seattle’s Daylighting Lab teach designers just how green their buildings can be.
