Eco Factor: Sustainable hotel for Washington DC.
Miami-based architect Chad Oppenheim has conceived a hotel called “1Hotel & Residences” for Washington DC. Touted as Washington DC’s first luxury green hotel, the hotel will be built for Starwood, the hotel multinational, and its partner Perseus Realty, LLC. The architecture firm has planned to build three 11-story volumes, which would be connected by a glass-enclosed vertical garden. This arrangement would offer 188,000-square feet area, which would be enough for the hotel’s 177 rooms.
The hotel will serve as a living machine that would naturally purify the air and the water in the building. It would also sport a spa and a green roof. Scheduled to be completed by 2010, one percent of the profits raised from the hotel would be donated to the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The Dark Side:
The use of glass would ensure maximum use of daylight, thereby cutting down on the lighting costs. But this way the hotel would get too hot inside, which would raise the cooling costs. Without the use of any renewable electricity generators, the hotel could prove to be a costly affair.
Via: Treehugger/DCmud
