Last Night’s Countdown
Do you know 40,000 of your colleagues are coming to DC in November for USGBC’s annual Greenbuild expo? The excitement was building last night at the National Capitol Region’s annual Green Tie Affair, where 400 packed a raw space at Prudential’s 1015 Half St SE.
No, these are not Martians with all that green, but DC Department of the Environment’s Jay Wilson, JBG sustainability manager Jessica Long, Hitt director of sustainable construction Kimberly Paxton, and USGBC’s Emily English. Jess and Kim are co-chairs of the NCR host committee for Greenbuild, which they point out is aptly being held here: DC has the highest number of LEED buildings per capita of any other city or state in America.
Architect Robert Beach, Perkins+Will’s Susan Merrigan, Syska Hennessy's Chris Kirchner and iUnit's Jonathan Wagner. Greenbuild is not like some of those big conferences that rotate among cities but are often in DC: Its past locations have been Philly, San Fran, Toronto, Chicago, Phoenix, Boston, Denver, Atlanta, Portland, Pittsburgh and Austin. Coming at last to DC is a big deal.
Architect Darrel Rippeteau, his colleague Maegan Sweeney, Fentress Architects' Steve White and WC Smith's Jeff Smith. Steve reports that his wife is a teacher, and even though his 11 and 14 year olds have had some days off recently due to snow, his wife gets off, too, “so life is good.” On the other hand, they forgot to sweep the walk and it got iced over, which is now treacherously under the snow. Someone may be sent to the vice principal's office.
