About this Project

The Kendeda Fund and the Georgia Institute of Technology are collaborating on a landmark project.

The two organizations have created the most environmentally advanced education and research building on a college campus in the Southeast. They named it the Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design. Now, they’re leveraging that partnership to guide others across the region toward more sustainable materials and processes.

In September 2015, Georgia Tech and Kendeda announced plans to design and construct the first building in Georgia certified under the Living Building Challenge — the world’s most rigorous green-building certification standard. Kendeda funded the entire project with its largest single grant ever: $25 million for design and construction, and another $5 million for support activities. Georgia Tech President Angel Cabrera and Kendeda Fund Executive Director dedicated the building in October 2020.

To do the work, Tech assembled a highly qualified set of design and construction partners. Among them were the architectural team of Lord Aeck Sargent of Atlanta and The Miller Hull Partnership of Seattle, and the construction manager, Skanska USA. They also drew upon expertise at Georgia Tech — before construction, on the building’s design, and after construction, on its programs.

Now, both Kendeda and Tech are leveraging the project to spread the word about advanced green building in the southeastern U.S. The aim is to educate property owners, architects, engineers and contractors, as they address environmental challenges facing the Southeast’s building sector.

This blog is one of those leverage activities. With as independent an eye as possible, we’ve chronicled the story of Georgia Tech’s Living Building, and continue to do so as the building seeks LBC certification. Those articles can be found in the site’s Building Chronicle category. (NOTE: Reporting on The Living Building Chronicle reflects the perspective of The Kendeda Fund only. Stories published on this website do not necessarily represent the views of Georgia Tech or other partners involved in the design and construction of the Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design. Georgia Tech and the other partners are not responsible or liable for the content or other material available on this website or provided by third parties.)

At the same time, we’ll be reporting journalistically about other environmentally regenerative projects in the Southeast and beyond. These articles — which appear in our Regenerative News section — wcover materials, design, construction and public affairs that affect the drive toward advanced building.

The lead writer and editor of the site is Ken Edelstein, a longtime Atlanta journalist who specializes in communicating about sustainable infrastructure. Other team members will contribute from time-to-time.

If you want to keep up with sustainable building, particularly in the southeastern United States, we hope you’ll become a regular visitor. Sign up for our occasional email newsletter here. Be sure to also check out ongoing coverage from Georgia Tech and Lord Aeck Sargent. And, if you’re on social media, you can keep up by following us on Twitter.