Hasta La Ideas

While the American Institute of Architects has fallen on some lean times like everyone else in their business, with cutbacks and staff furloughs announced back in late April, they still have to spend some of whatever money they can spare to make sure they maintain their standing in high regard within said industry. So it is with their headquarters in Washington DC, which just got the approval of the National Capital Planning Commission to greenify their whole, nearly 40 year old building. After all, it’s a little difficult to try and convince the architects in your association to start integrating green practices when you have flakes of asbestos on your suit and the elevators all run on coal. Here’s a bit:

It plans to build three building ventilation shafts through the top four floors of the building to be used in conjunction with proposed operational windows to help cool the building using natural air flow.

The D.C. office of Studios architecture will partner with the AIA and DPR Construction Inc. to complete the renovation.

The initial goal is a 60 percent reduction in fossil fuel use by 2012 with carbon neutrality by 2030. The project is expected to start in early 2010.