The $59-million, 221-unit Parc Huron in Chicago is purportedly the first LEED-Gold-certified high-rise apartment building in Illinois, the result of sustainable design elements that include enhanced daylighting in common areas and apartments, Energy STAR-rated appliances, low water-use fixtures and energy-efficient elevators, light fixtures and HVAC equipment.

Food processors and distributors tend to be energy gluttons, and all the more so when perishable goods are involved.

This $4.2-million facility, the 300th Ronald McDonald House worldwide, serves as a home away from home for families of critically ill children in the St. Louis area, providing them with everything they might need for their stays, including a great room, playroom and reading rooms.

The $23-million renovation and expansion of Lincoln Elementary School in Cicero, Ill., was driven by a schedule that called for construction of an adjoining 71,000-sq-ft addition during the school year and extensive rehabilitation of the existing 63,000-sq-ft structure—including new mechanical, lighting, data and fire sprinkler systems—the following summer.

The $92-million Franklin County Common Pleas Courthouse in Columbus, Ohio, makes a sound case for sustainable design by incorporating elements that reduce the facility's annual energy consumption by 25% and annual water consumption by 1 million gallons, relative to the performance of more traditional courthouse buildings.

The $1.9-million SPiN Milwaukee, the third of actress Susan Sarandon's table tennis clubs, blends a clean, contemporary aesthetic with the timber structure and masonry shell of a 108-year-old former warehouse.

This elementary school's dense urban site prompted planners to locate a playground on its roof, alongside vegetative gardens that helped qualify the structure for LEED-Gold certification.

Construction of the 6,000-sq-ft Three Sixty Rooftop Bar occurred atop the 25-story Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark, with the structural engineer resolving the issue of steel reinforcement by applying a reinforcing material to the underside of an existing concrete slab.

One of the last major private developments in Chicago to be financed prior to the recession, the 42-story, 600,000-sq-ft 200 Squared at Lake and Wells houses 329 luxury apartments in an environment brimming with sustainable systems and finishes.

This lobby renovation sets the stage for the rebirth of the 600 Washington Office Tower, one of several buildings whose age has hampered efforts to attract businesses to downtown St. Louis.