The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on the Environment (COTE) honored the top 10 “green” building projects for 2013 at the AIA National Convention and Design Exposition, June 20-22 in Denver, and at least five of the projects were constructed with glass or coatings made by PPG Industries. The following buildings were recognized.

• Charles David Keeling Apartments, La Jolla, Calif., is constructed with operable windows fabricated with SOLARBAN(R) 60 glass and Solarban 70XL glass.
• Marin County Day School Learning Resource Center & Courtyard, Corte Madera, Calif., uses glazing made with Solarban 60 glass and Solarban 70XL glass to form a strong indoor-outdoor connection for students to enhance their ecological literacy.
• San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Headquarters incorporates Solarban 70XL glass over Starphire glass in an integrated daylight-harvesting and lighting scheme that enables the building to use 45 percent less energy for interior illumination than a typical Class A office building.
• Swenson Civil Engineering Building, University of Minnesota-Duluth, features large expanses of Solarban 60 glass in buffer zones along the north and west exposures to minimize heating loads. The south exposure is lined with clerestory windows, also fabricated with Solarban 60 glass.
• Yin Yang House, Venice, Calif., is a net-zero-energy, single-family home that uses Solarban 80 glass and a perforated metal roof canopy to daylight living spaces while reducing solar heat gain. Operable windows and sliding glass doors fabricated with Solarban 80 glass and metal window frames protected by DURANAR(R) coatings by PPG enable prevailing ocean winds to naturally cool and ventilate the 4,700-square-foot home without mechanical air conditioning.