•Australia dumps incandescent bulbs for compact fluorescents. Australians will have to swap their 87 million old-fashioned incandescent light bulbs for energy-efficient alternatives such as compact fluorescents under a new federal plan to cut greenhouse emissions. After 2009, incandescent light bulbs will not be sold Down Under.
•Gehry will design a theater for Carol Burnett's late daughter. Architect Frank Gehry will design an expansion of California's Pasadena Playhouse that will include a 300-400-seat theater named after Carrie Hamilton, the late daughter of actress Carol Burnett. Gehry is doing the project pro bono to honor Hamilton, an actress and musician who died of cancer in 2002 at age 38.
Gehry has been friends with Burnett since they met 24 years ago when both served on the Hereditary Disease Foundation board.
•Vinyl industry applauds USGBC for rejecting negative LEED credit for PVC. The Vinyl Institute lauded the recent final report of a U.S. Green Building Council panel on PVC that said the material's use needs more study and that there were no plans for a negative credit for PVC in the Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification standards.
At the same time, the Vinyl Institute expressed strong concern that “In some areas the committee appeared to have made assumptions and jumped to conclusions in cases where there were little or no data.”
•Whether or not Chicago gets 2016 Olympics, it's getting an Olympic Village. The Chicago Plan Commission recently approved Mayor Richard M. Daley's plan to build a $1.1 billion, 5,000-unit Olympic Village on 77 acres of lakefront land that will be converted into a new community when the Games are done. Chicago and Los Angeles are the two American cities vying for the 2016 Olympic Summer Games.For more: www.BDCnetwork.com.
