Yet another reason New Yorkers might be jealous: the city of San Francisco has just announced 19.2 million dollars in new funding for energy efficiency programs. The bulk of the funds will go to EnergyWatch, a program that provides free energy efficiency assessments and low-cost retrofits for businesses and multi-family residences in the city.
This month Project H Design is hitting the road in a vintage Airstream trailer with their Design Revolution Road Show, starting with exhibitions in SF and LA this week! The show will be run by Inhabitat’s very own Emily Pilloton and will showcase 40 great examples of humanitarian design (as seen on the Colbert Report).
The tour kicks off tonight at 6pm in San Francisco with an opening party at the Academy of Art University and will be in Pasadena at the Art Center’s Hillside Campus on Monday, so if you’re in either of these cities we highly recommend checking the show out before it leaves the state. Hit the jump for details on each exhibition!
A proposed 239-unit development in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley has yet to come to fruition, leaving an ugly, empty lot in its place. Seeing this, a group of enterprising citygoers have decided to turn the lot into Hayes Valley Farm, an education and research project sponsored by the San Francisco Parks Trust.
We were excited to learn last year that the new Transbay Transit Center in downtown San Francisco would be built with green features in mind. We’re even more excited now that the $4 billion terminal has just received a $171 million loan from the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) to go ahead with phase 1 of the project, which will replace the current Transbay Terminal.
Affordable housing developments are all too often shoddily built, with little consideration given towards environmental impact. That’s why Ironhorse at Central Station, a planned development in Oakland, California, is so impressive. The development, built on abandoned former industrial land, will feature 99 sustainably built one, two, and three bedroom apartments when it is completed later this year. What’s more, all of the apartments will be priced for families with incomes of $18,000 to $50,000.
A round of applause for California! In an effort to trim statewide emissions by 1/3 by 2020, the state of California recently adopted CALGREEN, the first mandatory state-wide green building code in the country. The code was unanimously passed by the California Building Standards Commission and will take effect on January 1st, 2011. The building codes cover everything from construction waste recycling to indoor air quality standards.
San Franciscans, if you were wondering what that green painted box on Scott St. is for, wonder no more. San Francisco’s first green bike box now has a user-friendly picture of a bicycle stenciled on it. Bike boxes, or waiting areas for bikers to pull into at traffic intersections have been used in New York City and Portland, Oregon since 2008 and now have a home in SF too!
If you’re in the market for a floating home but not diggin’ the dark, cramped image that the word “houseboat” typically brings to mind, we think the Tafoni Floating Home will really “sway” you (get it – because boats rock back and forth? Okay nevermind.). Designed by Joanna Borek-Clement with the San Francisco Bay Area’s on-the-water community in mind, this spacious and modern version of the houseboat …
San Francisco’s Bay Bridge is undergoing some serious construction that will leave an ugly casualty behind: the old eastern half of the bridge span. Last year, Rael San Fratello Architects proposed that the obsolete span be converted into the Bay Line, a High Line Park for San Francisco. Not to be outdone, a class of graduate students at UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design have come up with other design fantasies for the aging eyesore.
Eventually, we’ll be squeezing renewable energy out of every possible source we can – especially from rooftops in urban areas. Adobe Systems is at the forefront of this trend, having just installed building integrated wind turbines atop its headquarters in downtown San Jose, CA. Their 20 new Windspire vertical axis turbines are affixed on the 6th floor of the parking garage of their office complex, which also happens to be LEED certified. The electricity generated from the turbines will eventually power an electric vehicle charging station in the garage below as well as the famous San Jose Semaphore!
Houseboats are a staple of the San Francisco Bay Area, but many people find them too cramped to be a permanent residence. The Tafoni Floating Home, designed by Joanna Borek-Clement aims to change that with a design that is both spacious and compact. The home, which is inspired by smooth, oval California coastal pebbles, is ideally meant for the houseboat district of Sausalito, and is roomy enough for even the most claustrophobic customer.
Ever pass by the giant glittery Coca-Cola billboard in downtown San Francisco and wonder just how much energy it sucks up? Not nearly as much as it used to, now that the whole thing has been replaced with an LED display that is 80% more energy efficient than the original sign.
Recently software manufacturer Adobe Systems Inc. gave a grant to the US Green Building Council (USGBC) to help San Francisco Bay Area schools achieve LEED certification, and the Bessie Carmichael School in the South of Market (SOMA) area was selected to receive an eco-renovation. The original challenge in 2007 was to convert the school’s existing 60-child preschool into a 230 student K-8 school for the Filipino Community. The site had been maintained as a school facility predating the 1906 earthquake and was in serious need of repairs when the San Francisco Unified School District hired Plum Architects to redefine the school structure.
On February 1st, design nonprofit Project H Design (run by Inhabitat’s own Emily Pilloton), will hit the road for a 25-school, 75-day, 6300-mile tour and exhibition showcasing design for social impact! The Design Revolution Road Show will take place in a vintage Airstream trailer that features a mobile exhibition of 40 humanitarian products and a lecture/workshop series that will visit 25 high schools and colleges around the country. The tour kicks off in San Francisco on February 1st, and you can check out the whole itinerary here.
If you live in SF and want to be the first to see the exhibition, join Project H for a VIP Sneak Preview on January 30th at Stable Cafe! They’ll be opening the Airstream exhibition doors, serving delicious food, and raffling off great design gifts!!
San Francisco has just announced that it will be continuing its popular Sunday Streets program next year with new dates and locations for 2010! Running for the past two years, the event closes off a series of roads to vehicular traffic and and opens them to street parties, bike-riding, and uninhibited power-walking. Announced by Mayor Gavin Newsom and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, the new series of Sunday Streets will expand into new neighborhoods, have longer hours, and will stop traffic on a total of nine days in 2010 as the program settles into a pleasant permanency.
from the Mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom…
This week in Copenhagen, representatives from nations around the world are debating the best measures to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change. The success of the Copenhagen talks is important as a measure of our collective commitment to tackling the causes and impacts of global climate change. But rather than wait for the deliberations in Copenhagen, it’s even more important that individual cities, states and nations show leadership in the fight against climate change through concrete actions and initiatives.Â
Acting – not waiting or debating – is exactly what we’re doing in San Francisco this week with the introduction of an innovative new initiative aimed at fueling the next wave of green job creation in San Francisco. The San Francisco Sustainable Financing program will offer residential and commercial building owners access to affordable, city-sponsored financing for energy efficiency, solar and renewable energy projects, and water conservation improvements. The repayment obligation will be attached to the property, rather than the individual, and will be paid back through property taxes over the life of the financing.Â
This year marked Global Green’s 5th annual Gorgeous and Green fundraiser and celebration in beautiful San Francisco. This star packed event promoted the organization’s numerous charitable green initiatives, and left the Bay area buzzing with an incredible eco-fashion show, a showcase of Sage Vaughn’s artwork, and a living wall exhibit by Design Ecology.
Just yesterday, one of our favorite mayors, Gavin Newsom in one of our favorite cities, San Francisco, announced that SF’s landmark Transamerica Pyramid Building, will now be classified as one of the greenest in the nation! That’s right, the famous San Francisco landmark was awarded LEED Gold certification yesterday, boosting San Francisco ahead of New York or Los Angeles in terms of cities with the most green buildings. Way to go, San Francisco!
This year’s Gorgeous & Green Gala is happening Tuesday, December 8th at the W Hotel in San Francisco and Inhabitat will be on the scene! Dine with celebs, check out the latest eco-fashions, sip on organic cocktails or just get your green groove on to the live music! If you would like to join us at the event, tickets are still on sale for this star-studded fundraiser benefitting Global Green and its many green initiatives; including the rebuilding of New Orleans, climate solutions, water conservation, and green schools. Read on for more event details!
CALLING ALL SAN FRANCISCANS!
If you’re looking for a way to recover from the rampant consumerism of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you might want to head out to the Mina Dresden Gallery tonight for a chance to party, collect amazing eco-art, and support two non-profts at the green sight + sound benefit! Awesome eco-artists like Nils Udo, Ned Kahn, Josh Keyes, and Inhabitat’s own Abigail Doan will be putting their work up for auction with proceeds going to the 4th season of ME’D1.ATE’s Soundwave Festival entitled GREEN SOUND as well as other programs at ecoartspace.
LOTS MORE GREAT GREEN DESIGN STORIES HERE... KEEP READING!
© Inhabitat.com 2010 | Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy | Inhabitat, LLC
