One of the biggest problems with electric vehicle technology is the lack of a plug-in infrastructure on our roads. But that problem is about to disappear — at least for some commuters on Highway 101 going between San Francisco and Los Angeles — thanks to a so-called “electric highway” of five recharging stations between the two cities. Four of the stations are already online, and a fifth will be up and running in Goleta by October.
Vancouver-based architecture firm Bricault Design’s vegetation-clad house in Venice, California is a sexy study in green. The mod abode incorporates sustainable design in a new residential addition that features a lush living wall on three sides of the house and a breezy roof garden perfect for relaxing in the sun. Read on to see the other eco-conscious touches that make other homes green with envy.
Southern California will soon be getting a much needed infrastructure update in the form of Orange County’s recently unveiled Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center (ARTIC). Designed by HOK Los Angeles and Parsons Brinkerhoff, the transit center will serve as a hub for commuter trains and two new high speed rail lines that will help commuters, fans, residents and tourists move seamlessly between transit services in Southern California and beyond. In addition to offering increased accessibility to green transportation, the station will be shooting to achieve LEED Platinum certification, the highest possible certification with the USGBC.
Pre-built homemakers extraordinaire, Marmol Radziner Prefab were in the news this week once again introducing their newest custom prefab home. High up in the hills above Los Angeles sits the new Hollywood Hybrid, a 2576 sq. ft. sustainable, modern prefab home with killer views and a minimal carbon footprint. Inhabitat went up to the site where the home was being built for a peek.
Dwell on Design is back in Los Angeles this month, showcasing an incredible array of modern design from June 26-28. Now in its sophomore year at the Los Angeles Convention Center, the three-day design festival brings together the best and brightest from the design industry to offer visitors “real live modern design” in the form of an expansive exhibition, design conference, home tours and special events. For fans of all things sustainable, we’ve scoured the schedule to find the show’s green highlights. It looks like there will be a lot to check out, and there are of course a few familiar Inhabitat faces in the line up.
In a city covered by over 4,000 square miles of asphalt and cinder block, the green roof movement may have just won a serious coup with SYNTHe, an urban rooftop garden prototype designed by SCI-arc professor and architect Alexis Rochas. Located atop the Flat, a downtown Los Angeles residential mid-rise building, SYNTHe is a fertile oasis in the sky that will ultimately grow a variety of edible plants. Through an active collaboration between students, faculty, and city officials, SYNTHe proves that green roofs could indeed have a fruitful future in LA.
Los Angeles recently saw the groundbreaking of Rock Row, the city’s first Small Lot Subdivision to be certified under the USGBC’s new LEED for Homes program. Developed by Heydey Partnership, the complex is aiming to prove that modern sustainably built homes can be affordable as well. As a result, homes in Rock Row, located in an historic neighborhood in L.A., will range from $475,000 to $550,000.
Talk about eco inspiration! More than 3,700 elementary school students hit the beaches on June 6th, 2008 to celebrate Kids Ocean Day in Los Angeles. The giant aerial art display send us the message of “Kids in Action” when it comes to preserving our ocean and its habitats.
This weekend, the Designers and Agents fashion trade show has come to LA to showcase the hottest emerging apparel designs. Since environmental sustainability is naturally future-forward, we are thrilled to see the trend-setting D&A show getting serious about eco fashion. At the D&A shows in both New York and Los Angeles, there were dedicated ‘Green Rooms’ to showcase emerging sustainable design. Inhabitat partnered with D&A on the Green Room this year to help curate green furniture, art and product design to compliment the green fashions on display, and we are excited to report back with the latest news.
The Designers & Agents Fashion show is happening this weekend in sunny Los Angeles, and Inhabitat’s LA team (Haily Zaki and Alexandra Kain) has taken up residence in the eco-friendly Green Room. We had such a great time at D&A in NYC that we’ve once again teamed up with Designers & Agents to curate furniture and décor in the Green Room, a space specially reserved to showcase young, sustainable eco fashion brands.
Aptly nicknamed the “green blade,” Jean Nouvel’s newest addition to the asphalt laden City of Angels slices through the concrete jungle at 10,000 Santa Monica, adding much needed greenery to the surrounding office towers. Standing 45 stories tall and little more than 50 feet deep, this statuesque green structure is bound to make an sustainable impact that we hope others will follow.
The Pacific Ferris Wheel at the Santa Monica Pier in California took her last spin on May 5th before crews dismantled the sun-faded behemoth piece by piece to make way for a shiny new wheel. And shiny it is, boasting 160,000 LED lights that will bring glittering visual performances to Santa Monica’s evening sky. The solar panels used for the old wheel will remain at the pier, providing clean energy for the 90-foot ride and its 800 passengers per hour.
The past month has seen shock waves resonating throughout the world of sustainable architecture with two monumental reports on green building backed by some serious changes in public policy. First, the CEC released “Green Building in North America: Opportunities and Challenges”, which lauded sustainable buildings as the quickest, cheapest, and most substantive way to cut down on North American greenhouse gas emissions. Next, CoStar released a comparison report stating that LEED buildings consistently outperform their peers in terms of occupancy rates, sale prices, and rental rates, with demand far outnumbering their supply. And, last week on Earth Day, Los Angeles approved a green building ordinance that signifies a significant shift towards a policy and market-driven era of economically and environmentally viable building.
It is not often that an architecture master reinvents himself, but that is precisely what Pritzker Prize winning architect Frank Gehry has done. Gehry, who first won international recognition with his own residence, a masterpiece of post-modern architecture, has revealed what can only be described as the first post post-modern architectural work, the New Gehry Residence, completely confounding both his critics and promoters alike.
Anyone who works in Los Angeles is familiar with the ubiquitous “roach coach” – mobile kitchens on wheels that roll up for breakfast or lunch to serve up everything from burgers to burritos. Well Angelenos, commence rejoicing! Green Truck, the brainchild of Kam Miceli and Mitchell Collier, now brings us a green, gourmet, on-the-go alternative.
While green seemed to be the color of the Los Angeles Auto Show, only a few new vehicles could truly live up to the label. One of those few vehicles was the FCX Clarity, a fuel-cell vehicle by Honda, which is set to go into limited production for those lucky enough – and probably rich enough – to lease one. The zero-emission hydrogen powered vehicle will be the first broad distribution of the Honda developed fuel-cell platforms.
pieceHomes premiered at Dwell on Design last month with seven modern prefab designs that take full green advantage of factory-built construction. Created by LA-based Davis Studio Architecture + Design, pieceHomes hold the promise of thoughtful integration of materials, technologies, and site considerations with both custom and standardized modular architecture at affordable prices.
LOTS MORE GREAT GREEN DESIGN STORIES HERE... KEEP READING!
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