The National Building Museum's Green Community Exhibit showcases communities with innovative sustainability efforts.   Interactive pieces provoke visitors to consider sustainability on a personal, global, and community level.

The Transportation Hallway features three "traffic  lanes"--bicycle, car or bus--projected onto the floor. As visitors traverse a lane, the vehicle moves with them and pop-ups describe that vehicle's benefits and consequences.

Visitors entering the exhibit first encounter the Think Global interactive wall, featuring a slowly spinning globe.  Touching an icon beneath the globe triggers a network, like shipping lanes or undersea cables, to appear.  Two networks can be displayed together, highlighting the overlap of these global pathways.

Finally, the Act Local Interactive Wall lies at the exhibit's end.  The projected community contains familiar sites - power plant, landfill, industrial district. Touching a site brings up potential improvements, like transforming the power plant into a wind farm or adding recycling stations to the landfill. Visitors can work together to "green" the town.  Between the simple interaction of the hallway, the subtle layering of the Think Global Wall, and the game-like feedback of the Act Local Wall, the interactives offer an engaging experience to children, teens and adult visitors.

NIH Bldg. 10 Library

The NIH Library has gone Green! Come take this tour and experience the unique benefits of the Green Terrace and innovative Reading Room.

Outside on the Green Terrace

• Solar Panels – Power up the lights, the pump for the cistern, and the jets for the fountain.
• Cistern – Stores more than a thousand gallons of water coming from two roofs. Supplies water for the fountain and irrigation system.
• Engineered Soil – Contains sedums, perennials, and medicinal plants. Brings down temperature. Absorbs water and keeps it from going into the storm water system.
• Pavers – Reused some of the cement pavers which allowed NIH to keep tons of rubble from the landfill.
• Living Walls and Shade Structures – Reduce the amount of heat and contribute to the aesthetics of the entire environment.
• Monitoring Systems – Track weather conditions such as tabulations from storm water runoff from roofs into the cistern. Data will display on our website.

Inside in the Reading Room

• Window Shades – Shades have Green Guard Certification. Even though you can see through them, they are designed to limit the heat transfer from the sun into the room.
• Training Room
  • Walls – The company that constructed the walls received the Excellence in Partnership Award for Industry Green Contractor from the U.S. Coalition for Government Procurement and GSA Members. Plus, it is a member of the U.S. Green Building Council and promotes LEED certification. Some examples of their green footprint are the way they ship products in large reusable "cookie" trays and the recycled content of their materials.
  • Ceiling – The ceiling tiles are made of bamboo.
• Study Carrels – Instead of buying some new, modern carrels with electrical outlets, the library decided to refurbish the old carrels by installing new outlets.
• Carpet – The recycled content was certified by Scientific Certification Systems.

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U.S. Green Building Council Headquarters

Preview

Join Us! Be one of the first to preview the new U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Headquarters' new two story, 75,000 sq. ft. office site.

The USGBC Headquarters is currently applying for 2009 PLATINUM LEED Certification - Commercial Interiors for their new office space.

Attend a preview and see how you can make your office areas even more sustainable!

* Limited to 15 Per Group *

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