Building Better

Imagine a workplace that provides natural light and views for every employee--not just those in the corner offices--collects and cleans water for reuse, sits alongside a restored wetland, and uses up to 55 percent less energy than a conventional building.

Employees with the nonprofit world-hunger organization Heifer International don't have to imagine it--they work in it every day. Their new 94,000-square-foot Little Rock, Arkansas, campus (pictured) was named one of the "Top Ten Green Projects" of 2007 by the American Institute of Architects. The list released this week also includes a low-energy research laboratory in Stanford, California; a Washington, DC, middle school ventilated by solar chimneys; and a Willingboro, New Jersey, public library that reuses the steel frame and concrete foundations of the Woolworth's store that originally occupied its site.