Currents

An Energy Newsletter for Local Governments

AIA's Top Ten Green Projects Showcase Environmentally Responsible Design, Redevelopment of Viable Brownfields

Factor 10 House, Chicago
EHDD Architecture, Chicago
URL: http://www.aiatopten.org/hpb/overview.cfm?ProjectID=271

In 2000, the City of Chicago's Departments of Environment and Housing sponsored a national competition to identify creative modifications to the existing New Homes for Chicago program. Factor 10 House's cutting edge design was one of five affordable case-study designs chosen to be built. F10's modular design responds to a narrow city site with adjacent buildings, with an open 1,834 square-foot floor plan that incorporates a solar chimney in the stairwell. The open plan enhances cross ventilation. Window placement maximizes reflected light; the solar chimney includes a south-facing clerestory window that brings natural light to the house's core. A high-efficiency gas fired boiler and perimeter fintube baseboard provides heating, while natural ventilation delivers the cooling. A wall of water bottles acts as a heat sink in winter.

Jury Comments: In a grassroots movement toward sustainability, the Chicago Housing Authority has built its first affordable housing cooled passively without central air conditioning, helping to lead the building community, including the major retail stores, to these concepts.

• 20 River Terrace, The Solaire, New York City
• Environmental Services Building, Pierce County, Wash.
• Factor 10 House, Chicago
• Genzyme Center, Cambridge, Mass.,
• Greyston Bakery, Yonkers, NY
• Herman Miller, Zeeland, Mich.,
• Lake View Terrace Branch Library, Los Angeles
• The Plaza at PPL Center, Allentown, Pa.,
• City of White Rock Operations Centre, White Rock, British Columbia
• Woods Hole Research Center Gilman Ordway Campus, Woods Hole, Mass.
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