Archinect - News

Google's BIG + Heatherwick-designed Bay View HQ campus opens

2022-05-17T18:55:00-04:00

Google has announced the opening of its new Bay View campus in Mountain View, California, with the neighboring Charleston East project in its final phase of construction. Together, they form the latest additions to Google's headquarters.

Photo: Iwan Baan, courtesy of Google

The web giant celebrates the first time it led the concept and construction of one of its own major campuses, boasting an extensive list of human-centered, sustainable features.

According to Google's project announcement, Bay View is an all-electric, net-water-positive facility with the largest geothermal installation in North America. Both projects report being the largest buildings in the world to pursue LEED-NC v4 Platinum and the largest to pursue elements of the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) Living Building Challenge (LBC) Petal Certification.

Photo: Iwan Baan, courtesy of Google

Designed in collaboration with Bjarke Ingels Group and Heatherwick Studio, the campus officially broke ground in 2...

WRNS Studio school sets new milestones for sustainability

2021-05-04T09:16:00-04:00

WRNS Studio has announced a milestone sustainability achievement for their Janet Durgin Guild & Commons, designed for the Sonoma Academy in Santa Rosa, California. The scheme has become the first project to achieve both Petal and Zero Carbon Certification by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI), as well as being the first project in California to receive Zero Carbon Certification, and the fourth in the State to receive Petal Certification.

Image: Michael David Rose

The project, previously detailed on Archinect here, takes the form of a Y-shaped mass nestled into the hillside overlooking Santa Rosa. At two stories, the scheme uses the site’s slope to form clear programmatic levels, supported by a landscape of pathways and habitats flowing over and around the terraced learning environment.

Image: Michael David Rose

Engagement, wellness, inclusivity, and sustainability formed core pillars of WRNS Studio’s approach. The Commons area features generous operable windows that ...

Meet the world's first Living Building Challenge certified winery

2020-05-29T18:01:00-04:00

After completing a required one-year post-occupancy review, the Silver Oaks Alexander Valley winery designed by Piechota Architecture, with engineering and sustainable design consultations from Thornton Tomasetti, has achieved Living Building Challenge (LBC) certification.

The winery's interconnected tasting, production, and administrative buildings. Image courtesy of Damion Hamilton.

Located in Healdsburg, California, the 100,000-square-foot complex was completed in 2018 and is now the world's first LBC-certified winery. The building exists, additionally, as one of just 25 buildings globally to achieve this level of certification from the International Living Future Institute, Thornton Tomasetti explains on the firm's website.

The winery project consists of two interlocking structures situated on a 113-acre site. One structure contains a sizable tasting room with event spaces and is connected to an adjacent production facility by a covered patio. The second structure includes admin...

Mahlum Architects creates first Living Building Challenge-certified building in Portland for itself

2020-04-17T18:52:00-04:00

When Pacific Northwest architecture firm Mahlum set out to design its new Portland, Oregon headquarters, one question the firm asked itself was whether it was willing to “walk the walk” with regards to environmental sustainability.

The firm’s response, as its newly completed Living Building Challenge (LBC) offices can attest, was an enthusiastic “yes!”

View into the studio’s open office area. Photo courtesy of Lincoln Barbour.

The LBC certification system, for the uninitiated, is widely considered as the “most rigorous sustainable building program in the world,” and offers up a variety of approaches for achieving a “symbiotic relationship between people and all aspects of the built environment,” according to the architects. Administered by the Living Building Futures Institute, LBC is billed as “a philosophy first, an advocacy tool second, and a certification program third.” Codified by a list of 20 “imperatives” organized according to thematic “petal” categories, the system focus...

Santa Monica's 'impossibly green' building dreams: the challenging path to Living Building certification

2016-11-30T14:57:00-05:00

On a small and skinny lot wedged behind its historic city hall, Santa Monica is trying to accomplish something that has never been done before in California. By 2020, the city hopes to construct a 50,000-square-foot city services building that will meet the requirements of the International Living Future Institute’s “Living Building Challenge” — the most stringent environmental building standard in the world.

"Should the city succeed it will prove that net-zero water is possible in our arid climate, even in a drought — and that if we’re serious about staving off the effects of drought and climate change, we should settle for no less. It will also familiarize code officials with new innovations, making it easier for developers to build sustainably."

The Bullitt Centre: A Green American Icon

2013-01-16T12:54:00-05:00

A brand new green building project is set to become one of the world’s most sustainable commercial office builds not for the new and innovative technology it has implemented but for the unique approach to green building the developers have taken.