Proving that even grey-haired, doddering old buildings can play in the green sandbox, the Mills building in the FiDi is now the second building listed on the National Register of Historic Places to earn an Energy Star rating. Energy Star is more or less the Environmental Protection Agency's equivalent to LEED — and here you thought it was only for appliances. Originally designed by famed Chicago firm Burnham and Root, perhaps best known for designing the 1891 World's Columbian Exposition, the steel-framed Mills Building was finished that same year and is SF's only surviving example of the Chicago School. In order to earn the Energy Star ranking, the structure was respectively retrofitted with new lighting, light sensors, mechanical equipment, and simple green cleaning & recycling programs— doesn't take much for the Fed to call green now, does it?
· Historic Mills Building Earns Energy Star Label [CoStar Group]
[image via Mills Building website]