By Kathleen Johnson
When a large design firm with sustainable values needs a new home, it’s not going to move into just any typical office space. The design has to make sense on every level, and celebrate the talents of the firm. This past January HOK moved into such a space, building out 27,700 [...]

By Vivek Jayaram
Sustainability. Twitter. Eco-Industrial corridors. These words are not historically germane to political discourse. Then again, Manuel “Manny” Flores, the alderman of Chicago’s First Ward, isn’t exactly a conventional politician. As a member of the Democratic Party, Flores has successfully held public office since 2003 by focusing his [...]

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 [...]

This home features several sophisticated green technologies such as geothermal HVAC and a grid-tied, battery backup 2.5 kW photovoltaic system.