Guests visiting Bank of America's headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina will soon have a more luxurious place to stay. As USA Today's Hotel CheckIn reports, the nation's largest bank is opening up a new Ritz-Carlton hotel across the street from its corporate headquarters.

The 18-story building will have a 12,000 square-foot penthouse wellness center, a street-side BLT Steak restaurant and 147 rooms including a 2,900 square-foot Presidential Suite. It will be the first LEED-designed new hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina and is being built for LEED Gold Certification making it the first green hotel under the Ritz-Carlton umbrella. The Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte at Bank of America Center is scheduled for completion in October 2009.

Asheville, North Carolina isn't the place I would expect to find $2 million condos but a local developer is hoping that they can find ten green-minded buyers to make the 73 North Street project a reality. The project is built on a small lot and includes a photovoltaic array on the roof and a garage that will only fit Smart cars (a Smart car comes with each unit).

The first floor of the building will have a small commercial space and the second will include an exercise room and spa and a guest room for visitors of building residents. The building's roof would be home to a lounge and garden. The building is planning for LEED certification and will include green features such as a water collection system, water-conserving fixtures, high-efficiency appliances and automated lighting and shading systems.

The building's units will sell for $2.1 million to $2.6 million and each would be about 2,300 square feet and take up an entire floor. According to an article in the Citizen-Times, the project won't go forward unless six of the units are sold in advance. Right now you can buy a large house with an acre or two of land for about that price in the Asheville area so the developers have an uphill climb ahead of them.

Even airplane hangars are going green. Hangar 25 of the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, California is the world's first aviation hangar to get LEED Platinum certification. The project built by Shangri-La Construction has a solar array that produces 110% of the building's operational electricity needs and powers the electric tow and other vehicles that would normally be powered by diesel. The diamond-polished concrete floor reflects light, and does not use toxic sealants that require regular reapplication and maintenance. It has a water-based hi-fog fire suppression system that eliminates toxic and ozone depleting chemicals and fans and evaporative coolers help eliminate need for the usual air conditioning. Water is also saved through low-flush, low flow and waterless fixtures and the landscaping includes drought-tolerant native plants and a no-mow, no-water Synlawn.

[via Treehugger]

Can huge be green? It's a question that comes up every time we see another large home aspiring for LEED certification go up. The NY Times profiles one of the most ambitious eco-friendly projects, Windermere on the Lake in North Stamford, Connecticut.

THe private community of twenty-four homes is spread out over 74 acres with a private lake. The model home is approximately 7,000 square feet of gracious living space with five bedrooms, four baths, a home theater, wine cellar and exercise room.

Windermere is being developed by NRDC Residential, a new division of the National Realty and Development Corporation of Purchase, N.Y., and will be going for LEED certification. The homes will be built to basic LEED standards. Buyers can also opt for a $100,000 geothermal system that uses an electric pump to transfer heat from the soil to the house in the winter, reversing that process in the summer. Other green features include formaldehyde-free kitchen cabinetry, sustainable building materials, low-VOC paint and carpets and smart lighting.

The homes are available in four basic styles meant to mimic the look of an English village and sell for $3.2 million to $4.8 million depending on size. Many question how green houses of this size can actually be. By nature, smaller is generally greener but if people are going to build mega mansions creating ones that are both attractive and more eco-friendly is at least a step in the right direction. Check out the gallery below for a look at the model home.

Hotel Terra Jackson Hole is a new luxury eco-boutique hotel set to open on January 29, 2008. The resort, which is located near the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in Wyoming is one of a new crop of LEED-certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) hotels in the United States. The six-story, 72-room hotel has a fitness center, rooftop hot tub, two restaurants, and a snowboard and ski rental shop. The guest rooms include organic linens and organic amenities such as shampoo and lotion. The rooms are also home to less eco-friendly features such as flat screen televisions and Bose surround speakers.

Hotel Terra Jackson Hole is the first in a collection of Green hotels launched by the Terra Resort Group. Examples of LEED, and other environmentally sound, elements in Hotel Terra include recycled Eco Shake roof shingles, low VOC carpets, paints and sealants, energy efficient heating and cooling systems, water conservation systems, wind power and the use of recycled products throughout the building. The Hotel Terra is offering a season-long Green Ski Package that offers a four nights' stay and daily lift tickets for two people, starting at $303 nightly.

Thinking green? Want to spend some green too? Project7ten, the recently built LEED Platinum Certified home in Venice, California, will be auctioned on eBay starting December 15th at 9 PM PST and ending on January 14th, 9 PM PST. Constructed from reclaimed, recycled or sustainable materials, fitted with solar panels and boasting a rainwater reclamation system, this home puts eco-living in the limelight. Adored by Hollywood stars and acting as a model for future home and office building efforts its no wonder that its starting bid is so high: $2.85 million to be exact. Yet this abode does offer a few extra perks: an 18-month lease of a Ford Escape Hybrid, a portion of the proceeds to benefit a non-profit called Healthy Child, Healthy World, and a great start to treating Mother Earth well.

I've already reported on two new LEED certified neighborhood developments, here comes news of a third. Fan Pier in Boston will be a $3 billion development that spreads across nine city blocks and will be home to residential, commercial, hotel and retail space. The Fallon Company recently broke ground on Fan Pier's first office building. It is the second building to be constructed at Fan Pier, following the striking design of the new Institute of Contemporary Art. One Fan Pier Boulevard, will be a new 18-story office building.

Fan Pier's next building will be a 20-story, 175-guestroom luxury hotel with 100 residential units, many with terraces overlooking the harbor. There will be nine new buildings in total as well as public parks and an improved harbor walk. There will also be a 96-slip deep water yacht marina that will be able to host megayachts. The project is expected to completed during the next four years.

What's green about this one? News on that has been slow in coming. There are lots of public parks planned and it will have excellent access to public transportation but while the developers are promising a sustainable neighborhood they have not offered up a lot of specifics to the public yet.

The other day I mentioned a LEED neighborhood development project in Florida, now comes news of another LEED neighborhood development project, the $1 billion project in Colorado, Ever Vail. The project at the base of Vail Mountain seeks to become the largest LEED-certified project for resort use in the U.S. The resort will include residences, a hotel, office space, retail shops, restaurants and a public park.

Eco-sensitive measures at Ever Vail will include using woods certified by the Forest Stewardship Council and local area beetle-kill Lodgepole pine trees in building construction, using a geothermal system for snowmelt, using micro-turbines in Gore Creek to power the outdoor streetscape lighting and using reclaimed water from snowmelt for use as water in toilets rather than using drinking water. A "closed-loop" gray water system would also be in place for washing all mountain operations vehicles, such as snowcats and snowmobiles at the site of the new mountain operations maintenance yard. The project will also include affordable housing in the form of studio, one- and two-bedroom units that will range in size from approximately 900 to 1,600 square feet.

South Florida hasn't exactly been the hub of the green movement but an ambitious new project in the city of Plantation might help to change that. A 33-acre development called 321 North seeks to create a new green town center for the city of Plantation. The $350 billion project includes 600 residential units, office space and a revamped shopping mall all within walking distance. A local news station, NBC6, checked out the development which will be created with eco-friendly materials including zinc siding and green screens where plants can grow to create natural shade. On the interior the bamboo and palm wood and products made of recycled materials continue the green theme. The development also is part of a nationwide pilot program to expand LEED beyond individual buildings to creating entire eco-friendly neighborhoods. Construction is expected to begin next year.

The rather chunky India Tower seeks to be the greenest skyscraper in India. The India Tower is a 60-story tower in Mumbai. The developer is aiming to get a LEED gold rating for the project. The tower's odd patched- together look was created by FXFOWLE architects and comes as a response to the three-acre site, the building's requirements and its mixed use. Each chunk of the tower has a different use, separating out retail, a Park Hyatt hotel and serviced apartments, and long-lease and duplex penthouse condominium apartments. The tower will use sustainable systems such as solar shading, natural ventilation, rainwater harvest and the use of green materials.

The tower's three-story podium will include restaurants, retail stores, a fitness club and a nightclub. The Park Hyatt will have a Sky Lobby (floors 30-35) with the hotel residences beneath on floors 14-28. The long-lease apartments will be located on levels 38 through 50 and levels 52 to 59 will be home to duplex penthouse condominium apartments with panoramic views. Construction is underway and should be done in 2010.

This home on Blue Hill in Maine is the perfect vacation home for someone looking for something a little more modern than your traditional shingled cottage. The home has 225feet of deep-water frontage and the side that faces the water is a wall of glass. The home is three bedrooms with plenty of open spaces including a double-height living room with a soapstone fireplace. There are also multiple porches and decks and two outdoor showers. The mater suite has a walk-in closet with an attached laundry room, and expansive master bath that includes a soaking tub and a deck overlooking the bay. The home was designed by a LEED accredited architect and has green features such as bamboo floors, the use of recycled materials, passive solar features and a landscaping design to reduce mowing. It is listed at $1.85 million. After the jump, loft-like in Maine.

With global warming becoming such an unavoidably huge issue, pretty much everybody has a soft spot for all things "eco." But that being said, not everybody takes it quite as far as Ted Turner's daughter, Laura Turner Seydel, and her husband did when they decided to built the biggest environmentally friendly home in the United States, the EcoManor.

It wasn't cheaper to build, although with features like recycled water from the showers irrigating the drought-resistant lawn, and rainwater-filled toilets, it will be cheaper to maintain -- 80 to 90 percent cheaper than other homes of similar size in the area. And with beautiful white linen wallpaper (made of recycled newspaper, of course) and natural lighting via solar tubes, the Seydels didn't have to sacrifice any style while they were doing their part to help the environment.