Being inside Sustainability Base, a $2-million, 50,000-sq-ft steel-frame building going up at Mountain View�s NASA Ames Research Center at Moffet Federal Airfield, may well be the closet you�ll ever come to visiting the moon.
Construction on the two-story facility, which is designed to be the federal government�s most environmentally sustainable building, began in August. The structure will � or should � consume no more energy than it generates, use 90% less water than other standard buildings and feature smart technology that will actually learn over time how to maximize the base�s systems.