This article appeared in The Chicago Tribune on October 27, 2006

"Green" has designs on the field's top prizes

David Hovey's Sterling Ridge home at Desert Mountain

By Blair Kamin

When talk turns to energy-saving design in Chicago, Mayor Richard M. Daley inevitably gets the spotlight because of his support for a variety of sustainable measures, such as the green roof atop City Hall. But the city's architects have been quietly pushing the envelope of green design and some of their efforts will be among the winners Friday night when the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects presents its 2006 annual design excellence awards.

All four top winners in the distinguished building category deftly incorporate green features into their designs. They are the 111 South Wacker office building by Goettsch Partners, a Bangkok airport terminal by Murphy/Jahn, a foundation headquarters in Troy, Mich., by Valerio Dewalt Train Associates and a home that architect David Hovey designed for himself in Scottsdale, Ariz...

Projects completed between Jan. 1, 2001, and May 1, 2006, were eligible for this year's program.

The four green projects will be recognized with an honor award, the highest form of recognition. They show how energy-saving design, once considered maverick, has gone mainstream...

...Hovey's Sterling Ridge house, a hard-edged but lyrical presence in the high desert, impressed jurors with its solar (or photovoltaic) cells suspended in cantilevers. The cells screen the house's inside from the desert sun while generating electricity to power the home.

"The photovoltaics are deployed elegantly — the first time I've ever seen that," a juror said...