The city's green building efforts will help ensure that the incredible quality of life we enjoy in the Bay Area today will be here for future generations. San Francisco is the only city in the country to mandate standards of resource efficiency for all municipal buildings. Energy conservation, use of non-toxic and recycled materials, and natural air and circulation are all part of the program. The 11 Grove Street project is an extensive, environmentally-sensitive renovation of a building that dates back to 1906. Fluorescent lights are hooked to light sensors that dim the lights during the day.
Safety flooring on the wheelchair ramp is made of recycled automobile tires.
Interior walls are finished with non-toxic paint. The entryway, which incorporates recycled carpeting and bamboo, is crafted from a hurricane-felled tree from President Andrew Jackson's Tennessee estate. Employee work stations and office furniture are made from rice straw, wheat straw and other agricultural waste that otherwise would have been burned. It's particularly satisfying to me that the EcoCenter itself is a landmark in green building. Other green building pilot projects on the drawing board in San Francisco include Laguna Honda Hospital, a new building designed in pods to give patients and staff closer contact with greenery outside the facility, and an office tower at 525 Golden Gate St. that will involve demolition of the existing structure and reuse of many of the materials in the new building.