Green Building

Even in New York City, it's a pain to try to "green" a building with insulation, overhangs, and other methods that violate zoning. Katharine Jose reports on the Zone Green Text Amendment, which addresses such impediments, and the team behind it.

The commonwealth's nonprofit affordable housing developers are outgreening their market-rate peers, bringing green building up to scale statewide.

Energy efficiency has become as compelling as "the new granite countertop" for home sales and rentals.

Affordable housing advocates find that green building techniques result in higher-quality construction -- and often with costs comparable to traditional building techniques.

Under the "living building" pilot program, a handful of developments get to bypass the usual zoning for sticking to some of the most stringent building standards in the world. But one developer wants an additional 10 feet of height for it.

Ecopolis Plaza is a former industrial site that has become an inventive children's park, located roughly 12 miles from the center of Madrid. Nicole Jewell checks it out.

In a bold move to secure its place as the bastion of sustainability, Seattle sets out to build a series of the "greenest commercial building on earth."

Developers in Frederick, ND are aiming to build "green" homes that middle income buyers can afford. The homes are sporting features such as, solar panels, geothermal heating and high-tech computer systems that are typically found in high end homes.

An exhibit in Paris presents elaborate, lush visions of "La Ville Fertile", or "The Fertile City."

The Los Angeles Times calls the Leipert-Pasker residence "the greenest house in L.A." In fact, the only thing that isn't green about this three-story home is its color.

New studies are proving that replacing already built buildings with new, energy-efficient ones is not good environmental sense.

The project converted a nine-acre parking lot into an ambitious urbanist community, which revitalized a nearby natural water channel, added high density housing, retail, and integrated a walkable design.

The Natural Resources Defense Council has prepared a 44-page 'Citizen's Guide' to the green building principles contained in the LEED-Neighborhood Development rating system for the layperson and organizations to apply in their own neighborhoods.

Climate scientists have warned Chicago's planners that the City will be significantly warmer and wetter by the end of theentury. And from street trees to building standards, that message is infiltrating Chicago's planning and design.

The 2011 eVolo Skyscraper Competition turned up some unusual and futuristic designs for future skyscrapers and other structures, from a reimagined Hoover Dam to a Ferris Wheel-shaped wind turbine.

Sustainable design and historic preservation design have sometimes been at odds. But a group of experts says these two goals can work together to improve building sustainability.

It's official, says the EPA: Living in a TOD reduces greenhouse gas emissions more than living in a green, single family home and driving a Prius. The study places major emphasis on local land use decisions in an effort to fight climate change.

The Vauban District in southern Germany is a small community built around a green transportation scheme, but it has become much more: a model of cooperative decision-making, sustainability and eco-planning.

A new free online tool, developed by the Center for Neighborhood Technology for the US Green Building Council, adds the effect of transportation and indirect emissions to the sustainable building equation.

The federal government set aside $5.5 billion in stimulus funding to retrofit its huge fleet of buildings. $4.5 billion is to be spent on green building projects, some of which have already been launched.