Certified Case Studies

Founded in 1855 by Reverend John G. Fee in Kentucky, Berea College is one of the nation’s most distinctive liberal arts colleges and the South’s first interracial and coeducational college. Berea’s century-and-a-half commitment to social equity continues today and is expressed through the college’s mission statement, otherwise known as their Great Commitment, that places a…

The Class of 1966 Environmental Center on the campus of Williams College houses the Environmental Studies department and the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives. The project began in 2013 when Williams College instituted its first Environmental Science majors and made the operational decision to co-locate the department with the college’s Center for Environmental Initiatives. The…

The creation of Eco-Sense was the dream of Ann and Gord Baird to build a sustainable home for their three generation family of six. A home that functions as a part of the eco-system where there is no line that separates where the dwelling ends and where nature begins. The family walks the talk of…

vital stats *  The project was registered under LBC 3.1, but when 4.0 was released, the team opted to pursue the requirements of the 4.0 version of the Materials Petal. Because the Petal certification structure and remaining Petals correspond to the 3.1 version of the Living Building Challenge, though the requirements of the 4.0 Materials…

The vision for the house and surroundings was to build the most environmentally friendly and beautiful house possible in the most socially responsible way possible. In more detail, the visions for the house were to: Build an attractive solar powered residence that produced more energy than it consumed Construct the house in a way that…

In the year leading up to the decision to move their Minneapolis studio, the staff of MSR Design conducted a firmwide study of the concepts behind the Living Building Challenge. This research, combined with MSR Design’s strategic goal to be the leading firm that achieves inspiring generative impacts across the board on all projects, made…

Google had outgrown its current office space in the River North neighborhood of Chicago, IL. Projecting future growth and increasing employee count, the company decided it needed more square feet of office space. Google leased 350,000 GSF of commercial office space in the West Loop neighborhood from local developer/building manager Sterling Bay. As part of…

jh.architecture’s new office in Burlington has been designed and built to receive Petal Certification for the Living Building Challenge. The project is the first in Ontario to receive this distinction. The design demonstrates jh.architecture’s commitment to healthy and sustainable architecture. To achieve Petal Certification, the project focused on the Health + Happiness, Materials, and Beauty Petals…