Hall 1

Annotated Bibliography

Why Renovating Old Buildings and Building

New Ones to be Green is Beneficial to Society

Connor Hall
Professor Malcolm Campbell
English 1103
March 9, 2015

Hall 2

Annotated Bibliography
Cassidy, Robert, et al. Great Solutions: Green Building. Building Design & Construction 50.8
(2009): 498-50. ProQuest. Web. 10 Mar. 2015
This source is a section of an article that talks about the green buildings in rural areas.
This excerpt talks about the green roof top spaces that are starting to become more widely
used in New York City. They claim that it addresses the lack of green space in the city by
using the existing rooftops as green areas. This allows the plant life to take in the CO2
making the air cleaner and also provides a space for people to go to for recreational
activities. It goes on to talk about the amount of buildings that they want to have LEED
certified within the next six months. LEED is a certification system based of the carbon
footprint and the energy use of the structure. The last section addresses the problem that
many schools have today with heating cooling. Determining when students and teachers
can or cannot open the windows plays a huge role in the consumption of energy. This
section proposes a simple yet effective solution by controlling the allowance of windows
to be open with a system of lights; green for yes and then red for no. Four very credible
designers collaborated on this article. All have had multiple other papers and articles that
have been published before and after this article. They cover the topic of roof top gardens
briefly yet still include valuable information along with sound examples of current of
future projects. I will be able to use this information in my paper to show the progression
of green architecture that is being implemented into buildings today. Along with that how
old spaces and buildings are being renovated to be energy efficient and begin to benefit
the environment.

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State Farm Employee. "What To Know Before You Renovate That Fixer-Upper." State Farm
Learning Center. State Farm, 22 July 2013. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
My next article is from State Farms website where they explain what to expect when
remodeling an old home. The first section is about deciding what is right for the buyer.
Starting off with explaining that the pros of a lower price and higher resale value the cons
are still there and can cause many unforeseen problems along the road, that of which can
add up in costs. The next section talks about what a buyer should consider when they are
looking not just the simple pros and cons, but to go more in-depth with selection. Stating
that the house needs to have a good location to increase possible resale profit is in decent
condition so that renovations dont turn into building a new house, and the layout and
configuration to go along with the location for more profit. The last portion of this article
talks about repairs and remodeling, financing, and not to over improve. These are all key
so that the remodel doesnt start to break the bank and consume too much of ones
resources. Repairs and remodeling both mean a good chunk of change out of the finances,
which is why they talk about renovating with in your limits. After reading this I feel as if
the author does not sugar coat the process of remodeling one bit. He talks about the worst
of the worst, but barely touches on the good. In all it seems to be all the negatives of
remodeling instead of the upside such as improving your LEED certification and resale
value. However, I do feel that this source is credible due to it being written by an
employee and approved by the insurance company.

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The Coolest Buildings Aren't Green. Perf. Bryn Davidson. Inhabitat.com.
Youtube, Oct.

2014. Web. 9 Mar. 2015.

I found this YouTube video through a website called inhabitat.com and I

felt as if it addressed the ever pushing topic of what is a green
building. Davidson starts of by talking about how buildings contribute
about half of the greenhouse gases produced today. Everything from
getting up in the morning and taking a shower to turning up the
thermostat on a cold day all takes up energy. The problem is not the
question of if we have the technology to address this problem, but how
to implement it into the old buildings already built. He uses the Park
place house in Brooklyn as an example, showing how a simple
renovation can take an old energy-sucking house and allow it to benefit
the environment. This example also shows that the building doesnt
need all the green bling that we see on buildings today. Moving on to
the next subject about the missing pieces that we need when looking
at a green building. The first is what is the location of this building.
Location is a large factor because if the building is in the middle of no
where then the family needs a car, which will counter act the house
being green, but if its in the city then the residents can walk or bike
places reducing emissions. The next was, what was there before?
Looking at houses original building site whether it was a green space
not producing any pollution or was it an old building sucking high
amounts of energy just to be wasted. The green space that the Rocky

Hall 5
Mountain Institute house designed by Amory Lovins took up was not
hurting the environment, but with the reduction of that green space
has negatively affected the environment. Davidsons last point was
about the quality of the building. How well does the building preforms
and does what it was designed to do. After watching this video I gain a
lot of valuable information and will most likely go back and watch it
many times. Along with the article about roof top gardens it is one of
the main supporters of my argument. With that said the speaker, Bryn
Davidson, is a designer in practice with a lot of experience and
research in the field of green architecture.

Sewell, Andy. "Going Green with Historic Building Renovation." Going Green
with Historic

Building Renovation. Hardlines Design Company, 27 Sept.

2012. Web. 9 Mar. 2015.

This article is my best example so far as to it is about restoring the
Lincoln Theater in Columbus, Ohio to be LEED certified. It begins by
talking about how the United States Green Building Council (a sponsor
of LEED) wants to reduce the green house emissions from buildings by
50 percent within the near future. Then the article moves on to begin
talking about the process of renovating the historical landmark to the
standards of today. The Sewell talks about the process of keeping the
integrity of the old building while bringing it up to standards of today.
As they move along in the process Sewell talks about how the LEED

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certified builders incorporated high efficacy HVAC systems, insulation,
windows and ventilation while keeping the history. He then ends the
article by talking about all the low emission products that are available
in todays market. Even though this article was short it still showed
that renovating an old building is possible and can drastically improve
the overall efficiency. The original post was a blog, however the firm
that undertook this project picked it up and put it on their site.
Therefore it has been review by them and approved so the credibility is
there.