Sustainable Urban Renewal
The Robert Redford Building in Santa Monica, dedicated by its namesake yesterday, is a forward looking environmentally friendly structure. The building collects rain water and uses it to flush the low-flush toilets as well as provide water for the plants. Solar cells contribute about 20% of the energy used by the building and skylights illuminate a good portion of the interior. The floors are made from bamboo and the exterior is a composite of fiber and cement which has the appearance of wood. Sea breezes and specially designed towers help maintain the building's temperatures and the carpets are made from hemp (not that sort of hemp).
Being classified as a structure of "sustainable urban renewal," the 15,000 square foot building was originally erected in 1917 and was recently stripped down to its wooden frame before being constructed in its new iteration. Redford, in a statement released in concert with the dedication, said that the building is a symbolic step forward for the conservation movement which has recently been traumatized by the Bush administration. "We are now suffering through an administration that has, in a very calculating way, set out to undermine and destroy 30 years of hard work," he says. "There's never been a time in my life when I've felt so challenged as a country, so challenged on the environment, as we are now."
[via Reuters]