June 30, 2008

Harvard, Yale, Others Embrace Green Design

Small middle school Sidwell Friends, which has plants sprouting on its roof, and a research complex at Harvard University that has sunlight-harvesting glass-bubble lounges are just two examples of the inventiveness being seen in green building design, Bloomberg reports.

Planners behind Kroon Hall, the new home of Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, now under construction, say it will be carbon neutral, Yale Alumni Magazine reports. The school will cost an estimated $467 million and is expected to open in 2009.

Both Yale’s environmental school and Harvard’s $1.2 billion science complex expect to achieve LEED Platinum certification.

Architects are also learning how to build-in low-energy tactics for less money, and, with rising energy costs, investing in green building is becoming increasingly prudent.

Sidwell school’s CFO Michael Saxenian says there was a long debate about how green to go, and what leaders there once thought frivolous expenses are now seen as smart investments.

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