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Green Building Goes Back to School
By Matt Baker Federico Garcia Lorca Elementary, which opened in the Avondale neighborhood last year, features a vegetated roof over half of the school. That disappointing surrender of freedom that...
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FedEx O’Hare Opens City’s Largest Green Roof
The FedEx Cargo Relocation Facility, is part of the O’Hare Modernization Program (OMP), now includes the largest green roof in the City of Chicago. The 3.9 acre structure is the size of three football...
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Chicago’s Nine Largest Green Roofs
#1 Millennium Park Spanning roughly 24 acres, the 1,067,220 square foot Millennium Park is considered one of the largest green roof projects in the world. Completed in 2004, the $475 million project...
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O’Hare Goes Green. Big Time.
By Matt Baker Courtesy Chicago Department of AviationTen years ago, then-Mayor Richard M. Daley announced a plan to renovate the area’s overtaxed, international airport. The O’Hare Modernization...
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The Green Exchange Comes to Life
By Matt Baker As spring arrives and the region shows signs of life renewed, new vigor is coming to the Green Exchange as well. Imagined as a microcosm of sustainable businesses, the Green Exchange made...
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Roosevelt University Eyes the Future
By Matt Baker Edward Sparling was president of the YMCA College in Chicago in 1945 when he refused to provide the school’s board with student demographic information, fearing a quota that would limit...
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A Decade of Model Green Building
By Matt Baker This June, the Chicago Center for Green Technology (CCGT) turned ten years old. Hundreds of people came out to celebrate the successes of one of the country’s premier green building...
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Sustainability is Above Board at Chicago’s Newest Harbor
By Matt Baker Bears season tickets. That is possibly the only waiting list in Chicago longer than the one to get a boat slip. With marina demand so large, the need for a new harbor was evident. The...
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Harper Court, Hyde Park and the Essence of Community
By Matt Baker In its previous incarnation, Harper Court was a deteriorating remnant of past urban renewal. Evoking a 1960s strip mall vogue, two levels of retail were split off the plaza, with stairs...
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Chiaravalle Montessori: Progressive in Education, Progressive in Design
By Matt Baker Architecture can be at its most expressive when the intended use is nontraditional. Montessori schools, which use a time-tested yet unorthodox educational technique, require spaces that...
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