Building In Bloom: The Making of the Center for Sustainable Landscapes at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens

Building in Bloom tells the fascinating story of how a historic Pittsburgh conservatory endeavored to achieve the world’s most rigorous green building certification with its Center for Sustainable Landscapes. For the final phase of a three-part expansion, Phipps took a revolutionary step. In 2007, it accepted the Living Building Challenge to guide the design and construction of its new research, education, and administration facility. When the Center for Sustainable Landscapes opened to the public in December 2012, Phipps demonstrated that commitment and collaboration can turn an ambitious idea into a high-performance building that operates as efficiently, cleanly and beautifully as nature’s architecture.

Combining project-specific details with reflections from the design team, Building in Bloom tells the story of how this remarkable structure came to life – from concept to ribbon cutting. This book, enhanced by its superb full-color imagery, is the first in a series of publications about leading-edge Living Building projects connected to the International Living Future Institute’s Living Building Challenge.