Each year, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) selects the ten best green buildings. Since this will be the report’s 20th year, the organization has a large enough sample size to find some key takeaways from the projects it has recognized.
"Lessons from the Leading Edge" is a study of the 200 Committee on the Environment (COTE) Top Ten Award winning projects since 1997. The report tracks energy efficiency, water conservation, and indoor environmental quality and evaluates design quality and environmental performance.
“Top Ten winners are an extraordinary group of case studies from the leading edge of sustainable design over the past two decades,” Lance Hosey, FAIA, lead author of the report and a member of the COTE Advisory Group, said in a statement. “The projects have been studied and published widely as individual projects, but never as a group—until now. What we found is that Top Ten winners are outpacing the industry by virtually every standard of performance, but they also exemplify the integration of design excellence and sustainable performance.”
The report offered recommendations for architects (“Drive greater awareness of the health impact of building materials and need for better indoor air quality,” for example) and it noted green projects trends. Projects effectively reduce water and often exceed AIA 2030 Commitment targets for energy savings. They tend to be located in urban areas and skew more towards the West Coast of North America.
"Lessons from the Leading Edge" is being released before the 2016 Top Ten Green Project awards, which will be announced April 22.
Related Stories
| Sep 21, 2010
Forecast: Existing buildings to earn 50% of green building certifications
A new report from Pike Research forecasts that by 2020, nearly half the green building certifications will be for existing buildings—accounting for 25 billion sf. The study, “Green Building Certification Programs,” analyzed current market and regulatory conditions related to green building certification programs, and found that green building remain robust during the recession and that certifications for existing buildings are an increasing area of focus.
| Sep 16, 2010
Gehry’s Santa Monica Place gets a wave of changes
Omniplan, in association with Jerde Partnership, created an updated design for Santa Monica Place, a shopping mall designed by Frank Gehry in 1980.
| Aug 11, 2010
AIA Course: Building with concrete – Design and construction techniques
Concrete maintains a special reputation for strength, durability, flexibility, and sustainability. These associations and a host of other factors have made it one of the most widely used building materials globally in just one century. Take this free AIA/CES course from Building Design+Construction and earn 1.0 AIA learning unit.
