WebProNews

The 85 buildings come in different shapes, sizes, and colors, but environmentally speaking, they’re all “green.”  They’re also all well-liked by Google, which has made models of them in Google 3D Warehouse.

Very few of the buildings could serve a residential purpose, so don’t try to find plans for your next home among them.  Instead, these buildings are real-life research centers, office buildings, or tennis centers, to name a few examples.  And to be honest, not all of them are visually interesting.

That could be a good thing, though, considering the current lawsuit against Frank Gehry; the BigHorn Home Improvement Center, which is described on the Google Earth Blog, sounds (and looks) vastly superior to MIT’s Stata Center.  Frank Taylor states that Home Improvement Center “uses extensive daylighting and natural ventilation cooling systems to lower energy demand.”

Also, “The center has a roof-integrated photovoltaic solar power system, the largest commercial solar array in the state, and sells unused electricity back to the utility company.”

This building (and the 84 others) are all included in the Department of Energy’s High Performance Buildings Database.  If nothing else, Google’s models should at least provide a bit of publicity for them.