If all goes as planned, the children of Haiti will soon have a small but powerful symbol of hope in the form of a 6,000-sq-ft building. Thanks to the largely volunteer efforts of the U.S. Green Building Council and others, the $1.2-million to $1.5-million William Jefferson Clinton Children's Center of the Fondation Enfant Jesus, which could open by the end of next year, is setting the stage for sustainable, resilient construction in Haiti, which was devastated by a magnitude-7 earthquake on Jan. 12, 2010.
"We really wanted to do something to promote sustainable design that also honors the country's culture and we wanted to empower an existing organization to carry out their mission," says Roger Limoges, vice president of organizational design for the the U.S. Green Building Council and USGBC's project manager for the children's center, which is slated to be built in Port-Au-Prince.