Houston's Turbine Topped Tower

Houston is coming into its own as a green building mecca. A study (pdf) released last month by the University of San Diego's Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate pegged the metropolis as the 2nd most green built city in the country, behind Los Angeles. Although the Texas city has less than half the number of green buildings, 46, as L.A, at 100, it only lags in sustainable square footage by about 20%.

On a side note, the same study found that Energy Star-rated buildings bring in higher rental rates than conventional buildings.

Houston may not be behind the City of Angels for long with construction about to begin on Discovery Tower (photo), a new downtown office building that will add 871,000 square feet to the city's green footprint. Developers Trammell Crow will be engineering the structure to earn a U.S. Green Building Council Gold LEED rating. The 30-story office tower is estimated to cost $300 million. While a certain amount of the green cred will likely come from water efficiency, air filtration, and energy efficiency, the real attention-getter is the collection of 10 windmills to be built on top. No word on how much energy those pinwheels will generate, but it should go a long way toward offsetting the building's carbon emissions.

Another project restoration of the depression-era Julia Ideson Library in Houston will shoot for a Silver LEED rating when it breaks ground in the fall. The brick and stucco Spanish revival building plans to meet its goal with a combination of a low-energy air conditioning system, efficient water system, green power buys, and integration of recycled and low-emitting materials.

With Texas taking the wind energy lead from California and making strides in the city green building rankings, you might wonder if pilates studios, another L.A. trademark, might be moving into the bottom level of that Discovery Tower.