According to a report that was released last month by the Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate at the University of San Diego, Los Angeles is first among U.S. cities when it comes to LEED- or Energy Star-certified commercial office space. The CoStar Group provided the data upon which the report was based and ranked cities by the total amount of their square footage that has earned either the LEED or Energy Star designation; no breakdown appears to be readily available that segregates the figures according to individual rating system. Los Angeles topped the list with 100 buildings and 26.2 million square feet while Houston checked in at #2 with 46 buildings and 21.1 million square feet; New York City was third with 11 buildings and 12.3 million square feet.
February 26th, 2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | ContinuedLos Angeles
Planning a Green Getaway? Eco-Friendly Hotels Abound Across the Golden State
The weather here in New York has been miserable of late, so it’s tough not to think about skipping town for a few days to sunnier skies. If you’ve reached that point already, Gregory Dicum of the New York Times recently visited four green hotels in California, including the Gaia Napa Valley Hotel, about which [...]
December 29th, 2007 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
Monday LEEDoff*: Contessa Premium Foods Opens First Certified Frozen Food Manufacturing Plant
Contessa Premium Foods will officially open the doors of its $35 million Green Cuisine™ Plant in Los Angeles sometime this fall. According to Contessa, the four million square foot plant is the world’s first and largest environment-friendly frozen food manufacturing facility, as well as the first such project to earn a LEED rating from USGBC. [...]
October 29th, 2007 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
gbNYC on Vacation, Week of 8/27
gbNYC will be on vacation during the week of August 27- I’ll actually be traveling on the west coast from Los Angeles to Portland via San Francisco. While I’ve got a bunch of green buildings on my list to check out while I’m here, and about which I’m hoping to blog from the road, the [...]
August 25th, 2007 | Stephen Del Percio | 1 comment | Continued
List of Green Building “Firsts” Emphasizes Need for LEED V3
The June 2007 issue of Urban Land included a list of ten “green building firsts”, ranging from a LEED Certified police station in San Diego to a Gold convent (designed by Perkins Eastman) in Corapolis, Pennsylvania. As Charles Lockwood noted in the introduction to his piece, the diversity of projects- both by use and geographic [...]
July 25th, 2007 | Stephen Del Percio | 2 comments | Continued
2211 Michelson Drive: LEED-CS Tenant Cites Green Design as Basis for HQ Relocation
2211 Michelson Drive, the first LEED for Core and Shell (”LEED-CS”) building Precertified in California by USGBC, recently added a new tenant to its roster which commented that green design played a strong role in its decision to relocate its corporate headquarters to the Irvine office tower.
Developed jointly by Hines and Crescent Real Estate Equities, [...]
DRI Announces Subsidiary Offering Turnkey Solar Roofing Services
Earlier this week, I received a press release describing the launch of a new solar roofing company called DRI Energy (announced yesterday). A subsidiary of one of the larger roofing contractors out West (the DRI Companies), the new venture will assist clients in each step of solar installation, from concept through engineering and financing, as [...]
May 23rd, 2007 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
California Proposes Ban on Incandescent Light Bulbs
The State of California has once again taken the lead through its proposed How Many Legislators Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb Act, which would ban incandescent light bulbs by 2012. California Assemblyman Lloyd Levine is expected to introduce the legislation this week.
Incandescent light bulbs are inefficient because they convert only about five [...]
Merry Christmas, Introducing greenbuildingsLA.com
2007 promises to be a wild ride for green building and, as such, I’m very pleased to announce that this web log is expanding its operation into California by launching greenbuildingsLA.com. My good friend Nick has graciously agreed to write and manage the LA edition for the time being and I hope you’ll both check [...]
December 26th, 2006 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
More on Trees in LA: The Million Trees Initiative
After chatting with me about yesterday’s post, my good friend ND out in Los Angeles pointed me to a terrific project that’s taking place across the City of Angels right now. The Million Trees LA Initiative is a collaborative program spearheaded by the city, community groups, local businesses, and residents with the goal of planting [...]
November 28th, 2006 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
L.A. Prepares to Bid Palm Tree Adieu
An article in today’s New York Times discusses the Los Angeles City Council’s decision to plant close to a million trees indigenous to Southern California (sycamores, crape myrtles, etc.) instead of replacing or even maintaining many of the city’s palm trees as they die off over the next several years. As the article details, palm [...]
November 27th, 2006 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued