08/25/2014 LEED Rankings
I usually do an end of year and a mid-year check of the LEED numbers, but June got past me. In college, a studio class with Lebbeus Woods taught me that our markers of time are arbitrary at best. So in that spirit, here are the current LEED number as of August 25, 2014. A new school year seems as good as time as any to take stock of the rankings.
There has been a big change to the top rankings. Washington D.C. has taken over the number 1 spot in Number of LEED buildings in city limits from NYC. D.C. had a LEED mandate and NYC has Benchmarking requirements. It will be interesting to see how the new construction versus existing buildings plays out.
Number of LEED certified projects in City Limits:
Houston stayed in fifth place behind San Francisco and ahead of Los Angeles. Houston’s number of certified buildings increased from 304 to 345, up 41 projects or 13.49% since the first of the year. It’s been a good year so far for LEED as the top 50 cities increased the number of their certifications by 13%. Other than D.C. taking over the number one spot, the top-ranked cities remained the same down to #16, with Austin moving up one spot, switching with Philadelphia. Big movers on this list were Syracuse jumping seven spots from #34 to #27 and Virginia Beach from #62 to #54. Cities with substantial drops include Orlando falling four spots to #34, San Jose falling four spots to #32 and Louisville falling five spots to #45.
City Number
1 Wash. D.C. 521
2 New York City 519
3 Chicago 502
4 San Francisco 357
5 Houston 345
6 Los Angeles 281
7 Seattle 271
8 Atlanta 257
9 San Diego 244
10 Portland 218
11 Boston 192
12 Denver 183
13 Dallas 161
14 Charlotte 152
15 Pittsburgh 141
16 Austin 132
17 Philadelphia 129
18 Grand Rapids 111
19 San Antonio 109
20 Sacramento 107
21 Cincinnati 104
22 Miami 102
23 Albuquerque 101
24 Phoenix 97
25 Baltimore 90
Number of LEED certified projects in the M.S.A.:
Houston made a big jump from #10 to #8, passing up Dallas and Atlanta. Houston was one of the top movers as no city moved more than two spaces in this list. Overall, Houston had the sixth biggest increase in MSA projects, adding 57 projects to date in 2014 for a total of 424 projects. The top 50 MSA’s had an 11.5% increase in certified projects.
City Number
1 Wash. D.C. 1,249
2 New York City 1,036
3 Los Angeles 908
4 Chicago 863
5 San Francisco 743
6 Boston 556
7 Seattle 521
8 Houston 424
9 Dallas 419
10 Atlanta 416
11 San Diego 390
12 Philadelphia 358
13 Miami 344
14 Portland 340
15 Denver 339
16 Baltimore 312
17 San Jose 302
18 Phoenix 266
19 Minneapolis 218
20 Pittsburgh 216
21 Sacramento 202
22 Charlotte 180
23 Cleveland 167
24 Riverside 163
25 Austin 161
Area of LEED certified projects in City Limits:
Houston stayed in third place over behind Chicago and New York City. The only change in the Top Ten was a swap with Denver taking over tenth place, knocking Las Vegas to #11. The biggest jump was Nashville jumping to #32 from #38.
City Area-MSF
1 Chicago 142.80
2 New York City 140.30
3 Houston 101.60
4 Wash. D.C. 99.84
5 San Francisco 75.10
6 Los Angeles 67.43
7 Atlanta 52.22
8 Boston 48.31
9 Seattle 48.22
10 Denver 41.54
11 Las Vegas 40.04
12 Dallas 36.86
13 Portland 33.20
14 Minneapolis 31.72
15 San Diego 30.32
16 Charlotte 25.90
17 Sacramento 21.48
18 Miami 20.22
19 Philadelphia 18.41
20 San Antonio 18.12
21 Austin 17.79
22 Pittsburgh 15.31
23 Phoenix 15.05
24 Baltimore 11.09
25 Orlando 11.00
Area of LEED certified projects in the M.S.A.:
Houston stayed in the #6 spot in this list. This list had very little change in its rankings, with the first move made as San Diego swapped places with Miami to move into 15th place. Houston had an increase of 12.2 million square feet or 12.46%. Chicago was the big mover with an MSA area increase of 16%.
City Area- MSF
1 Wash. D.C. 205.60
2 New York City 192.90
3 Chicago 187.00
4 Los Angeles 147.20
5 San Francisco 115.50
6 Houston 110.10
7 Dallas 88.88
8 Boston 85.28
9 Seattle 76.69
10 Atlanta 71.77
11 Denver 60.24
12 Minneapolis 48.71
13 Las Vegas 43.02
14 Portland 42.36
15 San Diego 40.13
16 Miami 39.70
17 Phoenix 38.07
18 Philadelphia 35.91
19 Baltimore 33.97
20 San Jose 32.21
21 Sacramento 28.70
22 Charlotte 27.26
23 Pittsburgh 22.76
24 Riverside 21.92
25 Austin 20.99