Articles About LEED

The office real estate industry is leveraging science and technology to make properties a boon to—rather than a drain on—the planet.

Who is the recipient of the inaugural Mayor Richard M. Daley Legacy Award for Global Leadership in Creating Sustainable Cities?  It’s none other than retiring Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley himself. Writing in the Chicago Tribune, architecture critic Blair Kamin said “Chicago’s lame-duck mayor, famous for his green thumb and his iron fist, will receive […]

Although construction in the United States has been slow since the financial meltdown of 2008, there is one niche segment that is thriving – green construction.  According to McGraw-Hill Construction, green buildings now comprise one-third of all new construction, an increase of two percent over 2005, a surprise in an industry that is historically slow […]

David Owen, a staff writer with The New Yorker, has expanded on his 2004 article entitled “Green Manhattan” that roughs up some of the environmental movement’s most closely held beliefs in a new book entitled Green Metropolis.  A review by Catherine Tumber, originally published in The Wilson Quarterly, notes that “Eco-friendly suburbanites and small-town residents […]

In Chicago’s – and one of the nation’s — largest commercial transactions of 2010, the 60-story, 1.3 million SF 300 North LaSalle Street skyscraper was sold for a whopping $655 million.  That adds up to $500 PSF. The buyer was KBS Real Estate Investment Trust II (KBS REIT II). The LEED Gold certified building, which […]

It’s surprising that the AIA still does not endorse LEED standards for green buildings.  There has been some progress in forming some kind of strategic alliance, but that is only in the area of advocacy, education and research.  There is still nothing concrete.  Nevertheless, the Architecture 2030 Bulletin and the AIA 2030 Commitment story are […]

Home Depot, NCR are greening their companies. Fortune 500 companies are increasingly using energy-saving measures in their corporate real estate.  Some firms are retrofitting warehouses to conserve energy or are applying Japanese principles to building design and operation. Home Depot, for example, has 2,245 retail stores comprising 235 million SF nationally, owns 89 percent of […]

By 2015, green buildings could constitute approximately half of all commercial space, according to a study by Good Energies, Inc., a New York venture capital firm.  Although sustainable initiatives were perceived as a niche market just 10 years ago, developers now realize that going green in new and renovation projects is not as expensive as […]

Marketing green is a new step in the emergence of sustainability.  In a tight credit environment when rates have climbed and LTVs have dropped, green may offer a way to ease the underwriting criteria on a deal. The green-building revolution is spreading, and the underwriting community has embraced sustainable design because it enhances marketability and […]