LEED for Neighborhood Development Sustains the Places in Between Spaces
In advance of its public launch, the USGBC’s newest sustainability rating system opens itself to public comments
LEED® for Neighborhood Development is the USGBC’s newest sustainability rating system. It measures the sustainability of entire neighborhoods, emphasizing broad issues of site context, infrastructure, programmatic use patterns, and social collaboration, as opposed to previous building-scale sustainability rating systems that are primarily concerned with the application of certain sustainability systems and practices. Currently in a pilot testing program, it will undergo a public comment phase in November before being released to the public in July of 2009.

The User’s Guide: Architect Finder
Another AIA tool to make the phone ring
The AIA’s Architect Finder is an online resource that collects architecture firm profiles and makes them available to potential clients and the general public to search though. It is automatically drawn from AIA membership data, but firms need to contact Architect Finder to add more information to the tool in order to make a more useable profile.

ADVENTURES IN ARCHITECTURE: THE SERIES
Il Duomo: Brunelleschi and the Dome of Santa Maria del Fiore
Episode 10: The Lantern
In our last episode, the great dome of Santa Maria del Fiore reached substantial completion and was consecrated by Pope Eugenio IV. Our man Filippo Brunelleschi had labored for more than 16 years, solving problems, overcoming material shortages, settling labor disputes—you name it, and Filippo had encountered it and resolved it. Join author Jim Atkins, FAIA, FKIA, as the Opera declares a competition for the design and construction of the great lantern that will rest atop the dome. The work to construct the dome was long and difficult, and the result was the greatest masonry dome in existence, but all would not be complete until the lantern shone as the crowning jewel on the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore.