Showcase of Excellence
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and its Committee on the Environment (COTE) have selected the Top Ten Green Projects showcase excellence in ecological design principles and reduced energy consumption. These ten examples of sustainable architecture and ecological design became the showcase of excellence, protected and enhanced the environment. The COTE Top Ten Awards program, now in its 20th year, is the profession’s most rigorous recognition program for sustainable design excellence. The program celebrates projects that are the result of a thoroughly integrated approach to architecture, natural systems and technology.
By conducting an in-depth study of nearly 200 COTE Top Ten Award winning projects encompassing almost 20 years in the recently released report, “Lessons from the Leading Edge”, it was determined that design projects recognized through this program are outpacing the industry by virtually every standard of performance. Award Top Ten Award mostly awarded to projects implemented in the US, but there are exceptions. This year one of the winners was the building erected in Ireland. Traditionally, most of the greenest buildings, namely five, appeared in California, two – in Texas, and Pennsylvania and Wyoming have one each.
Effective Modernization
Prize winner of the Top Ten Plus named the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt (EGWW) Federal Building is an 18-story, 512,474 sf office tower in downtown Portland, Oregon. Originally built in 1974, the building received funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to undergo a major renovation to replace outdated equipment and systems. This funding stipulated the project must meet the stringent energy and water conservation requirements of the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA).
Since the building’s completed renovation in 2013, post-occupancy studies have helped to demonstrate compliance with EISA’s efficiency objectives, refine and further improve the building’s actual performance, and provide feedback to the General Services Administration (GSA) and design team for future work. These studies, which will last through January of 2016, are being conducted collaboratively by members of the design and construction teams, the GSA Region 10, GSA’s Office of Federal High Performance Green Buildings, and third-party research entities.
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Materials provided by The American Institute of Architects