By William Olson
Developer: Calamos Real Estate LLC Development
Architect: Lohan Associates, LLC
Although most suburban development in the Chicago region has spurred on automobile-dependent urban sprawl and contributed to runaway greenhouse gas emissions, Naperville, Illinois—one of America’s quintessential edge cities—is now home to one of the nation’s models of hotel sustainability.
Renowned as the State of Illinois’ first LEED certified [...]

By Jessica Tobacman
Roosevelt University has begun plans for a new student center, incorporating a new eco-friendly edge into their design. The lobby of the university’s Auditorium Building currently houses a model that includes this structure and an artistic rendering of the institution’s new project. Located at 421 to 425 S. Wabash Ave., the Wabash Development [...]

By Susan Turner
One of the purposes of establishing a green rating system such as LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is to reduce the consumption of the earth’s resources. Historic buildings are one of the largest repositories of embodied energy. This project, located at 2620 W. Washington, retains the embodied energy of the entire [...]

By Susan Turner
Architect Jessie McGrath and developer Sylvan Shank, like many others in their field, have gotten into the spirit of Chicago’s green movement, beginning restoration of a project located on 1927 N. Honore. The building, constructed in 1907, was developed during the Chicago’s Garden Movement (c1900-1941), and is located on a street with many [...]

By Kate Yoshida
The report titled Removing Market Barriers to Green Development (U.S. EPA, Northeast-Midwest Institute and Delta Institute, 2008) grew out of earlier work done to promote redevelopment on brownfield sites. By carefully identifying obstacles at every step and in every conceivable direction, EPA Region 5, the Delta Institute and the Northeast-Midwest Institute have compiled [...]

Philosophically, green design and preservation hold common values and goals. Both movements are comprised of stewards, protectors of environmental and cultural resources for future generations, and both strive to reduce energy consumption. Preservation is about more than keeping pretty marble foyers and handsome facades intact. It is about retaining a cultural resource that was inherently respectful of the environment, and was built to last hundreds of years. It’s about life cycle costing, and building for future generations.