In a city known for its spas and hot springs, the community of Calistoga joined forces to build their own sustainable retreat, open to all local residents. The Calistoga Community Pool in Napa, California was made possible by its inhabitants who raised over $1.5 million to provide their own fun in the sun in the most sustainable way possible. The completely open community center, which parallells the pool area requires no air conditioning (with the exception of a small office), making full use of the warm climate and slight breezes that Calistoga offers. The butterfly roof was formed in such a way that it captures breezes, naturally ventilating and cooling the interior of the building.

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", Callistoga, City of Callistoga, community building, green architecture, Green Building, Green Community building, green design, inhabitat, inhabitat san francisco, inhabitat sf, napa valley, Sustainable Building, Sustainable Community Building, sustainable design

United Business Media is seeking LEED Platinum for their new San Francisco Office, creating a change from a “Me Space to We Space” as they adapt their operations from print media to the new digital world. Long gone are the days of the dreaded tall gray cubicles, laid out in puzzle like fashion. The move to digital and mobile technology among the younger employees in companies convinced UBM that collaborative “we” spaces where employees can move around the office and work in multiple locations is more intuitive than the creation of “me.” The new space, designed by Gensler, allows employees clear lines of sight to easily let colleagues interact with one another.

Read the rest of UBM Seeks LEED Platinum for New SF Office with ‘Me Space to We Space’ Design

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Post tags: "leed", Gensler, green design, green interiors, inhabitat, inhabitat san francisco, inhabitat sf, LEED Interiors, LEED platinum, LEED Platinum Interiors, sustainable design, Sustainable Interiors, UBM, UMB San Francisco

The College of Marin is promoting community engagement and environmental stewardship with their new sustainable academic center in Northern California. TLCD Architecture + Mark Cavagnero Associates submitted the winning design for the 48,000 square-foot building, which aims to engage the community beyond the campus, to enhance and unify the existing campus configuration, and to become an educational resource for integrated sustainable design. That’s a tall order, but the new building is smartly designed to meet the challenge while showcasing an impressive array of green building strategies.

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Post tags: College of Marin, Green Academic Center, Green Building, inhabitat, inhabitat san francisco, inhabitat sf, Mark Cavagnero Associates, Sustainable Academic Center, Sustainable Building, TLCD

Heads up San Francisco readers!

This weekend The Ki is bringing a totally new experience to San Francisco that features the finest sustainable designs, technologies, fashions, foods, wines, fabulous live music, models, micro brews, in the ultimate setting in the city by the bay…. Treasure Island! This epic event invites you to partake in the Blues by the Bay live music extravaganza (with nearly 50 artists), electric cars, motorcycles and bikes, biodynamic wines, gourmet organic living food with award-winning New York chef Matthew Kenney, a Yelp Lounge designed by Boxman Studios, plus art, entertainment, family and friends. If you’re interested in checking out the event we’ve got an amazing 50% off deal for our readers – read more after the jump!

Read the rest of The Ki Kicks Off on San Francisco’s Treasure Island This Week!

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Post tags: green events, green living, inhabitat, Inhabitat Green Events, inhabitat san francisco, inhabitat sf, Sustainable Events, sustainable living

Image © Cesar Rubio

Turning architectural trash into treasure, Public Architecture’s new e-publication ‘Design for Reuse Primer‘ provides excellent inspiration as well as plenty of eye candy for those looking to give a second life to materials destined for the local landfill. 15 projects are featured throughout the publication, showcasing the trials and success of using reclaimed materials in their construction – including a community center in New Orleans’ 9th Ward and a theater literally built from the stage of the auditorium that preceded it. The Primer offers a broad range of project types and geographical locations showcasing the inherent potential of reclaimed materials.

Read the rest of Design for Reuse Primer: Inspiration for Reclaimed Materials

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", Architecture, Design for Resue Primer, Design for Reuse, green architecture, Green Building, green design, green materials, inhabitat, inhabitat san francisco, inhabitat sf, Public Architecture, Reclaimed Materials, Recycled Materials, Sustainable Building, sustainable design, Sustainable Materials, U.S. Green Building Council, usgbc

This month Project H Design is hitting the road in a vintage Airstream trailer with their Design Revolution Road Show, starting with exhibitions in SF and LA this week! The show will be run by Inhabitat’s very own Emily Pilloton and will showcase 40 great examples of humanitarian design (as seen on the Colbert Report).

The tour kicks off tonight at 6pm in San Francisco with an opening party at the Academy of Art University and will be in Pasadena at the Art Center’s Hillside Campus on Monday, so if you’re in either of these cities we highly recommend checking the show out before it leaves the state. Hit the jump for details on each exhibition!

Read the rest of Project H’s Design Revolution Road Show Kicks Off in California!

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Post tags: design for humanity, green design, humanitarian design, humanitarian design solutions, humanitarian product design solutions, inhabitat, Inhabitat LA, Inhabitat Los Angeles, inhabitat san francisco, project h design, Revolution Design Road Show, sustainable design

Hey San Francisco Inhabitat readers!

It’s official! We’re having our first ever San Francisco Inhabitat reader meetup at Stable Cafe from 5-8pm tomorrow. Because we are planning this so last minute, we’re keeping things really casual: basically its just a chance to meet up, talk green design, and get to know the readers, writers and editors behind our website. In attendance will be Managing Editor Mike Chino, Senior Editor Emily Pilloton, Senior Editor Sarah Rich, tech writer Ariel Schwartz, green building writer Trey Farmer, art writer Moe Betiks, and me, founder and editor-in-chief, Jill Fehrenbacher. We’d love to meet some of our Inhabitat readers, so please stop by if you get a chance and say hi!

WHERE: Stable Cafe, in the Mission: 2128 Folsom St, (between 17th St & 18th St)
WHEN: 5-8pm, Thursday 7/30/2009
WHO: The fabulous inhabitat writers and YOU (hopefully)
WHY: Why not?

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Post tags: IH San Francisco, inhabitat san francisco, Inhabitat San Francisco Reader Meetup

Hey San Francisco Inhabitat readers!

I’m out visiting the Bay Area right now, and the San Francisco Inhabitat crew is thinking that it would be fun to host a casual reader meetup somewhere in the city in the next couple of weeks, so that we can get to know you guys a little better. We can drink, chat green building, eco fashion, and maybe give away some products or Inhabitat T-shirts. We were thinking happy hour – maybe 7/30 or 7/31st. Before we get too far down the road of planning, we wanted to gage your interest, and see who might want to attend. Let us know! If you want us to do something like this and you want to attend, please leave a comment on this post. If you have any ideas for venue, please let us know your suggestions as well in the comments!

-Jill

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Post tags: inhabitat event, inhabitat san francisco, Inhabitat san francisco reader meetup san francisco bay area reader event, inhabitate reader meetup, reader meetup, san francisco reader, san francisco reader meetup