Suggest an article
Send us your articles! Please email any articles or topics that you think we should feature to Editor@Sustainable-Chicago.com.
Cannon Design Does More With Less
December 13, 2012 by Matt Baker · Leave a Comment
By Matt Baker
Cannon Design’s Chicago office once occupied three stories and about 80,000 square feet at 111 W. Washington. This year, they moved into one floor spanning between the buildings at 205 and 225 N. Michigan. But don’t call the 60,000 square feet of space in Michigan Plaza a step down; Cannon Design has proved that less really can be more.
Read More…
Environmental Law & Policy Center Sets the Standard for Downtown Offices
June 9, 2011 by Matt Baker · Leave a Comment
By Matt Baker
Operating under the premise that ecological progress and economic development are not mutually exclusive, the Environmental Law and Policy Center (ELPC) advocates for sustainability policies across the Midwest. Founded in 1993, the non-profit, public interest organization has notched a number of victories, especially lately. Illinois utilities, for example, must increase solar energy purchasing starting next year, legislation due largely to the efforts of the ELPC. They also helped broker the nation’s largest urban solar plant, which was installed in 2010 on the city’s Pullman neighborhood. The multidisciplinary staff is now focused on cleaning the Chicago River, installing controls at coal plants and bringing high speed rail to the Midwest.
Read More…
The Taxman Cometh: Ernst & Young’s Green Office and Green Agenda
March 9, 2011 by Matt Baker · Leave a Comment
By Matt Baker
In 2009, Ernst & Young moved out of their marquee address—the 110-story Willis Tower—into a newer structure up the river. Owned by a joint venture of two John Buck Company funds, Chicago-based investor Brijus Properties and Morgan Stanley’s Prime Property Fund, 155 North Wacker wooed the professional services giant away.
Read More…
Hubble Middle School: Designing for the Future
December 16, 2010 by Matt Baker · Leave a Comment
By Matt Baker
When School District 200 approached Legat Architects seeking a firm to design a new middle school for the Wheaton/Warrenville area, they had specific requests and parameters. What school officials didn’t expect was to have the tables turned on them. “If you were to design your own workspace or classroom, what would you design it to be?” That’s the question Legat’s Patrick Brosnan, who served as principal on the project, put to the faculty and staff. “In fifty years, how would you be using the classroom? Because it will still be there in fifty years.”
Read More…
Wilmette Public Works Facility Becomes One of Few to Hit Gold
June 17, 2010 by Matt Baker · Leave a Comment
Many municipalities across the nation have legislated the greening of their facilities. Only a handful of public works buildings, however, aim as high as LEED Gold. Wilmette’s new public works facility did just that.
Read More…
Innovation Incubation: A Look Inside the Chicago Sustainable Manufacturing Center
June 10, 2010 by Matt Baker · 2 Comments
Carl Sandburg wasn’t abusing his poetic license when he referred to Chicago as “Hog Butcher for the World, / Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, / Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler.” Situated at the midway point between production to the west and consumption to the east, the City of Big Shoulders functioned as middleman to the nation. This gave rise to miles of new rail, acres of factories and the highest concentration of butcheries anywhere. The slaughterhouses were so extensive that the stew of methane and other gases belching to the surface of the Chicago River’s South Branch from discarded, decomposing offal provided the waterway a new nickname, “Bubbly Creek.”
Read More…
Life in the Lab: Experimenting With the Single-Family Home
March 11, 2010 by Matt Baker · 2 Comments
By Matt Baker
It is early adopters that drive down the prices and stretch the capabilities of new technologies, whether it’s the first production automobiles or the latest smart phones. And with much of the green building industry only just emerging, it requires that willingness to try something new, to redefine what’s possible, if these technologies are to take root.
Even before Jim and Beth Masterson decided to refashion a former schoolhouse from the 1880′s into a green home for themselves and their five children, they had begun implementing a greener life. They eschewed the clothes dryer in favor of line drying and the family became avid recyclers and composters. It was an experiment in how environmentally conscious they could make their daily routines without disruption. Read More…
Quarles & Brady Chicago Achieve LEED Gold
February 22, 2010 by Matt Baker · Leave a Comment
The Chicago office of Quarles & Brady LLP recently achieved LEED-CI Gold from the USGBC, making it the first publicly registered law office in Chicago to achieve LEED Gold status. Read More…
