Treasure Island: Gold and Green

Check this out:

All the buildings on Treasure Island will meet the gold standard of the U.S. Green Building Council, further reducing energy consumption.”

Taken from the recent article in Popular Mechanics revealing new plans to use San Francisco’s Treasure Island as a testing center for new green building developments and ideas.

That’s what they said, ALL the buildings. That’s pretty sweet.

Some of the other new features planned for Treasure Island’s green makeover include completely redesigning the infrastructure of the island to taking into consideration the amount sun and wind exposure unique to the location.

Sometimes it blows my mind that city planners hadn’t taken any of this into consideration when they had originally designed the city. What did they study in school and what were they getting paid for? I mean, granted they didn’t think about the effects of global warning, use of fossil fuels, etc. when the island was built in 1939 but even the Ancient Greeks knew about building their homes to receive winter sun and summer shade.

The article goes into more details as to the some of the projects they already have planned for the island. I’m really exited about this since I visit the Bay Area quite often. I’ve actually never been to Treasure Island myself but I’m thinking this will be great excuse to go on my next trip and get some “before” shots taken.

LED Coffee Tables

LED coffee table

from the flickr set Coffee Tables

I just realized I never made a post about Wired’s NextFest 2007 that I attended this summer. I wanted to reference it in this post… but it does not exist. Anyway, these twinkly LED coffee table creations from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories and Because We Can totally remind me of an exhibit I saw at NextFest. The tables are modded to light up when the motion sensors are triggered. Thanks to these pictures now I really want to make one and now I’m thinking I should probably attend the next Maker Faire.

Check out more cool shit from Because We Can and Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories.