Santa Monica, Calif., may offer LEED alternatives to help promote green construction

With developers in Santa Monica, Calif., looking for ways to build green more inexpensively, the city may consider alternatives to LEED such as Green Globes.

At least one developer of a mixed-use housing project has asked for and received permission from the City Council to go for a LEED equivalent building according to LEED standards, but not having to go through the certification process.

But there is no alternative review process in place at City Hall and no employees are trained to ensure that a project is LEED equivalent. Thus, Green Globes, a less costly option, might be a viable alternative.

“With Green Globes recently increasing their standards, it may be time for another look,” said Dean Kubani, who heads the city’s Office of Sustainability and the Environment.

(http://smdp.com/taking-the-green-out-of-green-building-certification/132959)

New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.