Bjarke Ingels Group designs a mass timber cube structure for the University of Kansas

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and executive architect BNIM have unveiled their design for a new mass timber cube structure called the Makers’ KUbe for the University of Kansas School of Architecture & Design. A six-story, 50,000-sf building for learning and collaboration, the light-filled KUbe will house studio and teaching space, 3D-printing and robotic labs, and a ground-level cafe, all organized around a central core.

Airports

The next destination: Passive design airports

Today, we can design airports that are climate resilient, durable, long-lasting, and healthy for occupants—we can design airports using Passive House standards.

Codes and Standards

First federal blueprint to decarbonize U.S. buildings sector released

The Biden Administration recently released “Decarbonizing the U.S. Economy by 2050: A National Blueprint for the Buildings Sector,” a comprehensive plan to reduce greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions from buildings by 65% by 2035 and 90% by 2050.

Green

LEED v5 released for public comment

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has opened the first public comment period for the first draft of LEED v5. The new version of the LEED green building rating system will drive deep decarbonization, quality of life improvements, and ecological conservation and restoration, USGBC says.

HDR | Sep 15, 2014

Sustainability rating systems: Are they doomed?

None of the hundreds of existing green building rating systems is perfect. Some of them are too documentation-heavy. Some increase short-term project cost. Some aren’t rigorous enough or include contentious issues, writes HDR's Michaella Wittmann.

Sep 12, 2014

Armstrong first in Pennsylvania to earn LEED Platinum recertification from USGBC

The Armstrong facility is the first building in Pennsylvania and among only 17 buildings globally to achieve recertification at the highest level possible under USGBC’s LEED-EBOM program.

Skanska | Sep 7, 2014

USGBC + American Chemistry Council: Unlikely partners in green building

In this new partnership, LEED will benefit from the materials expertise of ACC and its member companies. We believe this has the potential to be transformational, writes Skanska USA's President and CEO Michael McNally.

Tesoro Corporation headquarters in San Antonio, TX, a LEED-certified building. P

Sep 3, 2014

New designation launched to streamline LEED review process

The LEED Proven Provider designation is designed to minimize the need for additional work during the project review process.

Sep 2, 2014

Judson University’s Harm A. Weber Academic Center resembles copper, but its sustainability efforts are pure gold

The building’s custom-fabricated wall panels look like copper, but are actually flat metal sheets coated with Valspar’s signature Fluropon Copper Penny coating.

Bill O'Keeffe | Aug 25, 2014

Glazing plays key role in reinventing stairway design

Within the architectural community, a movement called "active design" seeks to convert barren and unappealing stairwells originally conceived as emergency contingencies into well-designed architectural focal points. SPONSORED CONTENT

The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology Campus in Saudi Arabia is

Aug 1, 2014

GBCI joins up with Bureau Veritas to support LEED certification process in global hubs

Partnership intended to improve LEED certification process for projects in countries around the globe.

Energy-efficiency retrofits are on pace to grow more than 7% a year through 2023

Jul 28, 2014

Commercial energy-efficiency retrofits will represent nearly $960 billion investment in next decade

Payback periods remain a critical factor for decisionmakers on retrofit projects, report finds.

Whole Foods is among the grocery companies recently using Green Globes certifica

Jul 25, 2014

Grocery stores choosing Green Globes for building sustainability certification

The Green Building Initiative (GBI) has announced a wave of Green Globes certifications for new grocery stores, including New Seasons Markets, Whole Foods, Price Chopper, Aldi’s, Harris Teeter, Wegmans, and Publix.