Photographs by STEVE HALL © Hedrich Blessing
Left: Grand Rapids Art Museum is considered the world’s first LEED Gold certified art museum. Below: The museum’s landscape design is highly water-efficient. Bottom left: The museum uses recycled and recyclable materials. Bottom right: The building has efficient insulation for concrete and glass walls.
The building is one of Chicago’s architectural gems, first housing an undergarments factory over a 100 years ago, and later, the Cooper Lighting Company. Energy-guzzling lighting has been eschewed at the new, green iteration of the space. The LEED-awarded structure now features a sky garden with a future on-site restaurant, as well as expansive meeting and event spaces, available to both tenants and the public. According to the Chicago Tribune, Green Exchange earned its accolades for “energy use, lighting, water and material use, as well as incorporating a variety of other sustainable strategies,” which includes “a state-of-the-art green roof, an organic garden, a chicken coop, a 41,329 gallon rain cistern to allow water to be captured and reused, energy-efficient windows, an energy-efficient escalator, and much more.” The businesses that are housed within Green Exchange are equally eco-conscious: Greenhouse Loft, a sustainable meeting and event space; WeFarm America, which offers customized organic gardens for homes and businesses; Rainforest Learning Center, an environmental art-based pre-school and infants program; and Ale Syndicate, an environmentally-conscious microbrewery, among others. “It is such a high honor to be recognized by the USGBC and to become LEED-certified,” says David Baum, president of Baum Development, the 28 MAY/JUNE 2015