Outside In

I love this shot from Livingetc. of architect Steven Ehrlich's residence in LA. How great would it be to enjoy this living room day in and day out? You can see more of the house, which incorporates sustainable building elements by going to his site then clicking on residential projects, then 700 Palms Residence.

Building... on a Building

I saw this project on apartmenttherapy.com and found it absolutely amazing. This 4,500 square foot house, the vision of architect Andrew Berman, is built on a rooftop in NYC! I've long been enamored with New York and I know for sure sure that if I win the lottery, a home like this will be on my list.

This subject brought to mind an article I read a couple of years ago about buying "air rights" in the city. It seemed absurdly logical to me... and thoroughly intangible with all the ifs, ands and buts. I found a similar article on therealdeal.net that you can check out as well. Buyers not only purchase the space for the possibility of building within it, but for the purpose of protecting their little ray(s) of sunshine.

Chicago Among Greenest, Fastest Cities

In a recent article, FastCompany.com named the thirty fastest cities in the world, then divided them into nine categories. In the "Green Leaders" category Chicago topped the list, followed by Stokholm, Portland and Vancouver. I was so happy to see my city at the top, though I was a bit surprised that it outranked Portland, according to these guys. Maybe that's because the greening of Chicago has taken place mostly on rooftops, whereas Portland seems to incorporate green living into its culture on many more levels. The article cited this as the main indicator for Chicago: "Since 1999, the city has planted 2.5 million square feet of heat-reducing rooftop gardens, more than all other U.S. cities combined." And apparently mayor Daley has overseen the planting of 500,000 new trees.

Those of you who don't live here may be surprised to know that the city JUST NOW started a city-wide recycling program about two months ago. Moving here from Texas, I was shocked that a system wasn't already in place. I'm not sure what the hold-up was, but at least it's here now. I look forward to the continuous greening of Chicago.

The Apple store on Michigan Ave is one example of an urban green roof (picture from treehugger):