The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design is about to collect another award.

Southface announced today that the project at Georgia Tech (which is the primary focus of this website) will be recognized as one of four 2018 Fulcrum Award winners. The awards will be given Monday evening at a celebration that kicks off next week’s Greenprints conference.

“Though diverse in scope, each Fulcrum Award recipient exemplifies our vision to promote a regenerative economy, responsible resource use, social equity, and a healthy built environment for all,” Southface president Andrea Pinabell said in press release. “We are proud to honor these projects that bring us all closer to a better future.”

While Southface is collaborating with the Kendeda Fund on programs related to the Kendeda Building, the organization stressed that the winners were selected by “an independent panel of eight jurors who boast expertise in sustainability across a wide range of sectors.” The one juror who is involved in the project, architect Brian Court of The Miller Hull Partnership in Seattle, recused himself on consideration of the Kendeda Building.

The Southface statement noted that upon completion, the Kendeda Building is expected to be “the first of its size and function in the region to be designed with Living Building Challenge 3.1 principles, the world’s most rigorous proven performance standard for buildings.” The building was designed by Lord Aeck Sargent of Atlanta and Miller Hull of Seattle. Skanska USA is the general contractor.

Last fall, the project — which recently started construction — won an Atlanta Magazine Groundbreaker Award.

According to the press release, the other recipients will be:

• Georgia State University’s Leafy Green Machine, which addresses adaptive reuse, food scarcity, urban agriculture, and sustainable innovation to produce 4,500 pounds of leafy greens within a 40-foot space.
• Live Thrive Atlanta’s Center for Hard to Recycle Materials (CHaRM), metro Atlanta’s first and only permanent drop-off facility that accepts recyclables and other items that aren’t currently collected in curbside recycling programs.
• The Len Foote Hike Inn, recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award. For 19 years the Hike Inn has worked to protect Georgia’s natural resources and teach guests about sustainability’s value. Its new Above the Grid project allows the Hike Inn to receive nearly 70 percent of its energy from solar and greatly reduce its carbon footprint.

The Greenprints conference, which takes place Monday through Wednesday in downtown Atlanta, will celebrate its 20th year as the Southeast’s leading annual meeting on sustainability in the built environment. The conference is organized by Southface, which describes itself as the “premier organization for resilience in the Southeast.” For more information on Greenprints and to register, click here.