When we linked to the Honest Buildings website in March we had no idea the site would launch so quickly in DC, but, lo, they have chosen the District as the second locale—after NYC—for publishing information about thousands and thousands of commercial buildings in the city. As of this morning there are 15,000 buildings profiled on their site, with information such as who owns a specific building, who built it, its LEED certifications, any renovation work that has been done, and so on.
For example, you can find out that the National Portrait Gallery had a boarded-up skylight refurbished with Serious Windows that has eight times the insulating factor as before. Or that the building at One Franklin Square has been able to go LEED Gold based on changes to their heating, cooling, and power sources. But that's just for fun. Another purpose of the site is to connect people who own or manage a building with companies that have the specialized knowledge to repair or upgrade the building. More on that after the you-know-what.
"We chose DC, one because it is a major US city with tons of people and tons of real estate, and two because launching now ties in nicely with the AIA conference this weekend," said Josh Boltuch, CMO of Honest Buildings. "We did New York to start off because that's where we're located and there's more real estate there than anywhere else, but we're planning to do this across every possible city in the US as quickly as we possibily can."
Boltuch went on to explain that the site's ideal consumers fall into two groups, the building owners or managers and the people who work on big commercial or mixed-use buildings. "Our site accelerates the connections between people. So if you own a building and need an architect to do something like what you've seen on another building you can find out who did the project and contact them." They also keep a database of these service providers—from construction to financial types—that building owners can dig into when they need to find someone for a project.
· Honest Buildings [OfficialSite]
· Linkage 3/23/2012 [CDC]
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· New Site Pulls Back the Curtain on 250,000 NYC Buildings [CNY]