Colorado Court, Santa Monica (2002)
Pugh + Scarpa Architects
There's no shortage these days of projects rated "gold" on the Green Building Council's LEED—for Leadership in Energy and Economic Development—scale, but what attracted attention to Colorado Court when it opened in November, 2002, was its combination of affordable housing and energy neutrality in a dense urban environment. It has 44 single-room-occupancy units for very low income tenants, and its combination of an on-site natural gas cogeneration plant system and photovoltaic panels allows the building to send electricity back into the grid during the day. Passive cooling eliminates the need for air conditioning, while rainwater collection prevents polluted water from entering Santa Monica Bay.
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