Proximity Hotel Assumes Role as One of the Greenest Hotels in Country
Proximity Hotel seems to have found a way to deliver a comfortable,
luxury-type experience and still be one of the greenest hotels in the
country. It was built to use roughly 36% less energy and 30% less
water than a comparable hotel. Proximity Hotel also heats over half
the building’s water with roughly 4,000 sf of solar thermal panels on
the roof. In the video embedded below, Dennis Quaintance, Chief Design
Officer of Proximity Hotel,

http://www.max4object.com/wp/?p=821

Rødovre Tower to be Plush Sky Village
Rødovre, an independent municipality of Denmark, was looking for a new
residential tower and MVRDV, with co-architect ADEPT, rose to the
challenge. On Monday, it was announced that their “Sky Village”
concept won a design challenge to create the next Rødovre skyscraper.
The 116 meter (~381 foot) tower will feature apartments, retail,
offices, an hotel, as well as a public park and plaza. The
architects’

http://www.max4object.com/wp/?p=820

Putting Parking Lots to Good Use
University of California, San Diego is in the process of installing
Solar Trees by Envision Solar on the roofs of two of its parking
garages. The Solar Trees are designed to provide clean energy for the
campus, shade for vehicle parking, and future infrastructure for
electrical vehicles. Each Solar Tree at UCSD will generate more than
17,000 hours of clean energy per year, which is enough to power more
than four single-family homes. In aggregate,

http://www.max4object.com/wp/?p=819

REI Round Rock Second Gen Green Store To Use 48% Less Energy
Mounting on the green building success of their previous stores,
including the green Boulder REI we wrote about previously, REI today
opens the doors to its second generation of green prototype store in
Round Rock, Texas. The Texas store is projected to consume 48% less
energy than a typical store and generate a portion of its power from a
solar panel installation,

http://www.max4object.com/wp/?p=818


Green Trailer Maxes Out Sustainability
This is the McCownGordon Construction Green Trailer. Pretty nice,
right?! It was designed to use a fraction of the energy typically used
by jobsite trailers and still provides a modern user experience on the
inside. The interesting thing about this trailer is that it was
designed using Autodesk Revit to get everything just right: the panels
were placed at the best angle to capture energy and clear
overpasses,

http://www.max4object.com/wp/?p=817


The Union Modern Solar-Powered Lofts
This is The Union by architect and developer Jonathan Segal Architect.
The project gets its name from its prior life as the union hall for
San Diego’s textile manufacturing business. When the textile union
moved away, the building fell into disrepair, and rather than demolish
it, Jonathan Segal decided to adaptively reuse the structure to create
sustainable live/work units and his own architectural office.

http://www.max4object.com/wp/?p=816


LEED Platinum Home Breaks Records
We’ve seen a ton of LEED Platinum homes on this site, but today’s home
achieves something new. USGBC founder David Gottfried and his family
recently finished the green renovation of their 1440 square foot
Craftsman bungalow, a home that was originally built in 1915, and took
it through the LEED for Homes certification process. In doing so, they
received a total of 106.5 points (out of a total 136) and the

http://www.max4object.com/wp/?p=815


Vatican Gets Serious with Solar
Maybe Samsø started a trend in becoming a net exporter of renewable
energy because it appears that the Vatican is thinking about doing
something similar. The curvacious roof of Paul VI Audience Hall, a
building that’s located right by the famous St. Peter’s Basilica, has
been topped with 2,400 photovoltaic panels to source energy for
lighting, heat, and air conditioning. The 5,000 m2 (54,000 sf) roof
will produce ~300

http://www.max4object.com/wp/?p=814


IBM Predicts Solar Growth in 5 Years
IBM is becoming gradually more involved in the world of clean tech, so
it’s not surprising that their third annual “IBM Next Five in Five”
includes a mention of solar power. The list includes five innovations
that will change the way people work, live, and play over the next
five years. Accordingly, IBM thinks energy saving solar technology
will be built into asphalt, paint, and windows. Basically, with the
advent of thin-film solar cells and advances in technology, everything
everywhere will have solar cells and harvest energy. And the
technology to do so will be affordable, too.
According to IBM:

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