Tech Company Goes Green in Woodstock

If you've been a Mac owner for a certain amount of time, you're probably at least casually familiar with Other World Computing, the Woodstock, Illinois-based online seller of Apple computers, electronics, and accessories.  What you may not know, is that OWC is one of the latest Chicagoland tech company to go green.

Other World recently became the first light manufacturing / assembly building in Illinois to be awarded LEED Platinum status.  It hired Harris Architects in Palatine to head the project which included installing a geothermal heat pump, using high-tech insulation, and equipping the building with facilities that encourage people to ride their bicycles to work.

The most visible green element is the 194-foot-tall wind turbine.  It generates more than double the power the company needs, so the rest gets sold to the local utility company and ends up in homes in McHenry County.

Most interesting to me is that OWC is engaged in sunlight harvesting.  I first saw this on a science program in the 1990's, where a Japanese skyscraper was using an array on the roof to gather sunlight, and then deliver it to cubicles via fiber optic cables.  Eight of the last ten offices I worked in didn't have windows, so this was something that got my attention and something I always hoped would become commonplace.  Alas, it has failed to catch on as a "green" element as quickly as vegetative roofs or low-flow toilets.  But maybe what One World Computing has done will inspire other companies to provide just a little bit of sun to those who toil in their cubicle farms.

• You can click here to read One World Computing's full press release about its green efforts.
• And click here to take a virtual tour of OWC's facility.

Another Patch of Green in Streeterville

Another small oasis of green has opened in Streeterville.  This is in the plaza between the neighborhood's two newest residential skyscrapers -- The Streeter (345 East Ohio Street), and Streeter Place (355 East Ohio Street).

There's not all that much to it, just a path, a patch of prairie, and some places to sit.  But the plantings have been designed cleverly so that they're arranged to continue the architectural patterns laid out by the architects in stone.

Up Close With the Apple Store's Green Roof

Apple has long touted the environmental friendliness of its computers.  What a lot of people don't realize is that the company goes to great lengths to make its hundreds of retail outlets environmentally friendly as well.

The Chicago Apple Store is a good example.  If you've ever looked out the window from the food court at Chicago Place, or looked up the address of the Apple Store (679 North Michigan Avenue) on Apple's web site, you've probably seen the building's green roof.

Finally, we got the opportunity to get up-close and personal with the sprouts we'd seen from a distance since 2003.

Like many green roofs, this one by Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architects is based on a system of trays arranged in a grid around the store's central light well.  Specifically, it's the GreenGrid system.  Each of the 302 trays are four inches deep and together cover about 2,400 square feet of the roof.  They are planted with Sedum Kamtschaticum, also known as Orange Stonecrop.  We probably don't have to tell you that it's drought and cold-resistant.

The building wasn't initially designed with the green roof in mind.  Hoerr Schaudt was working on the parkway landscaping in front and on the side of the building when the firm approached Apple about also installing a green roof.  Apple agreed, and the rest is vegetative history.

The roof has several benefits:

• Reduces the building's contribution to the heat island effect.
• Reduces storm water runoff
• Reduces the need for air conditioning

Pepsi's Chicago Wind Farm

There have been a lot of cases lately of private corporations taking over public spaces from the taxpayers.  But in Chicago, one company is doing the opposite.

Chicago is home to a regional office of Pepsico, and it recently located in a new building at 555 West Monroe Street.  One of the features of the building is a public park on the podium's roof.  It's just two stories above the cacophony below, but it is an oasis in an area desperate for greenspace.

Most people don't know it exists.  You enter through a dedicated elevator from an anonymous foyer on Monroe Street.  Once upstairs, there are some patches of grass, a few plantings, and lots of tables and chairs for a picnic.

Most impressive, however, is the rooftop wind and solar energy farm.  Here's a video showing the turbines and panels.  That noise you hear in the video isn't the turbines, it's the sound of nearby construction.




The farm and the green roof are two of the contributing factors that helped this building attain its LEED status.  And for as long as the roof remains a public amenity, we're happy to have Pepsico in the neighborhood.

The greening of 900

Have you noticed what's going on on the roof of 900 North Michigan?  It's getting a green roof.  Well, not the roof of the actual skyscraper, but on the roof of the building that's officially called the 900 North Michigan Avenue Annex.  Construction has been going on for about a month and from what we've been able to see in that time, it involved tearing up the old roof, putting in a new roof, and now finally what appears to be a lawn.



The brochures for the Residences at 900 North Michigan Avenue already tout its garden (barely visible in this photo behind Michigan Place) as the city's highest outdoor greenspace.  Of course, it will lose that title once the roof on the annex is opened.  It will be interesting to see if people who live in the building will be able to access the new garden high above Oak Street and Rush Street.  We'll let you know what we see.