The Proximity Hotel

Not only did this hotel in Greensboro house President Obama which is cool enough in itself but it is also the only hotel in the US with a Platinum LEED Certification. By far the coolest hotel around!

Here is a sampling of the 70+ sustainable practices at Proximity Hotel:  The sun’s energy heats hot water with 100 solar panels covering the 4,000 square feet of rooftop (enough hot water for a hundred homes). This heats around 60% of the water for both the hotel and restaurant. The building uses 41% less energy than a conventional hotel/restaurant by using ultra efficient materials and the latest construction technology.    700 linear feet of stream was restored by reducing erosion, planting local, adaptable plant species and rebuilding the buffers and banks. Approximately 700 cubic yards of soil was removed to create a floodplain bench. And 376 tons of boulders and 18 logs were used to maintain grade control, dissipate energy and assist in the creation and maintenance of riffles and pools.  Chip Holton, our artist-in-residence, created original art for each guest room and the lobby. Since his temporary studio was next to Proximity, no packaging or shipping was utilized to transport the 500 pieces of art.   Most of our furniture was designed by our team and made locally.

Natural Sustainable Materials

We had a lady from CaraGreen come talk to our Materials class today and I found it so fascinating! I have always had a flare for green design and it is so exciting how big it has become. Her company connects all the 'green' businesses out there with the ever growing construction, mainly with big commercial spaces. Some key sustainable materials she mentioned were:

BAMBOO

Bamboo has come to be known as the quintessential “rapidly renewable” raw material. Though often considered a wood (due to its’ replacement of “timber” in many construction applications), it is in fact part of the grass family.   Bamboo has phenomenal growth rate potential, with some species growing at a rate of up to 6” a day, with maximum height of up 100’, reached in just four to six months

 CORK

Cork is an inherently sustainable resource, being both biodegradable and renewable.  Cork material is harvested from the cork oak tree (Quercus Suber), but instead of needing to cut down the tree to source the benefit of the raw material as is done with the majority of all other wood species, the bark (or outer skin) of the tree is peeled off, and the tree is left to regenerate. The cork oak is a slow growing tree that can live from 170 t0 250 years, which enables the stripping and harvesting of the cork to occur 16 times during its lifetime on average.

COCONUT PALM

The Coconut Palm (Cocos Nucifera) is part of the palm family, and is found usually in sandy soils along the coastlines where salinity in the soil is the norm. Though they can grow naturally in a number of locales, the majority of the commercial growth and production is in India and Sri Lanka. They can grow up to 30m in height, and on average produce between 50-100 coconuts a year (per tree) – after the first year of growth to maturity.