A Platinum LEED certification from the US Green Building Council (USGBC) was awarded to the Water + Life Museums, which comprise the Center for Water Education and the Western Center for Archeology and Paleontology, designed and constructed by Los Angeles-based Lehrer + Gangi Design + Build. 

The complex is the first museum building to secure a Platinum LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating, the highest bestowed by the USGBC.  The award is doubly impressive, as the 70,000-square-foot museum complex met the most exacting green standards (including those regarding energy and water consumption), despite the harsh desert environment of Hemet, where triple-digit summer heat is the norm, but where water can freeze in winter.

Regeneration embodies the sequences of devastation, survival, rebirth, adaptation and life. In war, nature—comprising the land and the human spirit nurtured thereon—is ravaged and seemingly destroyed.


Miraculously and somehow inevitably, however, nature survives and regenerates as the power of life prevails. It is this process of regeneration and healing that nourishes and rekindles human hope, faith and courage.


Located in the Ottawa, Canada, the project's conception is a joint venture between Moriyama & Teshima Architects and  Griffiths Rankin Cook Architects.

The Wild Center/Natural History Museum of the Adirondacks, a new museum complex in Tupper Lake, New York, has earned distinction as the first LEED certified museum in the State of New York.

Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) system is the recognized international benchmark in green building design and construction.

Through a series of integrated sustainable strategies that are expected to save between 20 percent and 30 percent of its normal operating costs, The Wild Center exceeded the base LEED certification to earn a Silver distinction. The LEED system provides a roadmap for measuring and documenting sustainability across six categories: sustainable site including construction activity pollution prevention; water efficiency; energy and atmosphere; materials and resources; indoor environmental quality; and innovation and design process.

Located in Toronto, Canada, this Renaissance ROM project entails renovating ten new galleries in the existing historical building and creating an extension to the museum:  the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal. 

The new extension provides dynamic new architecture, the creation of a great public attraction and 100,000 sq. ft. of new exhibition space.  Situated on one of the most prominent intersections in downtown Toronto, the Museum becomes a dynamic center for the city.  SDL is working on this project with Van Bolts.  The Extension opened in June 2007.

A renovation and addition to a historic museum.

Located in Brunswick, Maine, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art is a historic building originally designed by Charles Follen McKim of McKim, Mead and White and dedicated in 1894. It is considered a Landmark in North American museum architecture. The project by Machado and Silvetti Architects  had to on enlarge the existing museum to accommodate the museum’s expanding needs. The project also needed to update the building systems. The architects had therefore to bring the museum into Twenty first Century requirements while keeping the integrity of the original nineteenth Century building.

The project by Machado and Silvetti Associates  consisted of the renovation and expansion of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum located in the small Massachusetts seaside town of Provincetown.

The project posed two challenges. The existing Museum is a historic 19th century building 'The Hargwood House'. The first challenge was therefore building a large extension that doesn’t conflict with the exiting building. The second challenge was to develop a large scale building, without overpowering the surrounding residential area of the small town. Machado and Silvetti Associates turned out this smart solution at the same time elegant, contemporary, and well integrated in its surroundings.

© Photographs are the copyright of Anton Grassl/Esto

Rojkind Arquitectos worked around the clock to turn their client's requirements for a Chocolate Museum into a remarkable spatial experience.

While Nestlé’s chocolate Factory in Mexico City (located in Paseo Tollocan near Toluca) was in need of an inner pathway for visitors to witness the production of their favorite chocolates, a group of experts put together by rojkind arquitectos and Traqs suggested bigger plans for the company.