designwire daily | Clinton Global Initiative and USGBC Announce Children’s Project for Haiti

Clinton Global Initiative and USGBC Announce Children’s Project for Haiti

by Ian Volner | Friday, September 30, 2011

The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) has made a pledge to the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) to construct a new children’s center and orphanage in the Haitian capital of Port au Prince. The project, which will replace a condemned building in the city’s Delmas district, was announced last week at the CGI’s annual meeting in New York City, and will be undertaken with an array of project partners, including local non-profit Fondation Enfant Jesus, architecture firm HOK, and construction consultants Lendlease and Adaptive Building Solutions.

The now condemned school experienced severe structural damage in the 2010 earthquake.

Project Haiti, as the USGBC has titled the effort, is the fulfillment of a promise made shortly after the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti in January of 2010. As part of the CGI’s Commitment to Action program, the Building Council signed up to bring in $850,000 in donor-pledged funds to help rebuild the island nation; the LEED-certified children’s center, combining health facilities, education, and family-placement services, is meant to set a new standard in Haiti for ecologically sensitive building practices in community development.

Further damage the school.

“Project Haiti is our commitment to the children of Haiti to not only provide a safe shelter, but to provide a model of sustainable construction that can be replicated throughout the country,” says USGBC founding chair Rick Fedrizzi.