California buildings brought home five of the prizes awarded at the AIA Committee on the Environment’s Top Ten awards this year. Texas and Pennsylvania—as well as Galway, Ireland—also had winning projects, while the Top Ten Plus prize (awarded to a structure that has been previously recognized for design excellence) went to a federal building in Portland, Oregon. Since 1997, COTE’s Top Ten Green Projects program has annually recognized structures that demonstrate a stellar integration of design, technology, and natural surroundings. All architects licensed in the U.S. may submit their completed projects, and there are no special requirements for size, budget, or building type. Architectural Digest surveys this year’s honorees, which range from a public learning laboratory in San Francisco to a visual arts facility in Wyoming. What ties all the winners together is an innovative use of natural light and greenery, clean lines and inventive silhouettes, and a pioneering architectural spirit.
Boston-based architecture firm Payette’s Biosciences Research Building for the National University of Ireland, Galway, features a three-story atrium at its center.
Pittsburgh’s Center for Sustainable Landscapes building was devised locally by the Design Alliance Architects to generate its own energy as well as treat and recycle all of the water collected on-site.
San Francisco’s Pier 15 is the Exploratorium’s new EHDD-designed home, complete with 80,000 square feet of exhibition space and clear views of the bay.
AD100 firm Lake|Flato Architects , along with H-E-B Design + Construction, created an energy-efficient supermarket and community meeting space near downtown Austin, Texas.
The J. Craig Venter Institute in La Jolla, California, was designed by ZGF Architects to achieve LEED Platinum status.
UC Berkeley’s Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation, efficiently devised by San Francisco’s Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects, is a community space on a small corner lot of the campus.
San Francisco’s Rene Cazenave Apartments, also by Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects, is the first new building in the city’s Transbay Redevelopment Area.
The Josey Pavilion in Decatur, Texas, is a Lake|Flato Architects design that serves as an education and meeting space for the Dixon Water Foundation.
The University of Wyoming’s Visual Arts Facility was designed by Portland, Oregon’s Hacker architecture firm. The structure is crowned with large-scale solar tubes.
Harley Ellis Devereaux created a new West Branch Library that boasts Zero Net Energy status for the City of Berkeley, California.
Portland, Oregon’s Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building was built in 1974 and received a major renovation by SERA Architects that included updating the structure’s façade.
