David Langton Announces LEED Doesn't Cost More. Or?

Before stating "There is no significant difference in average cost for green buildings as compared to non-green buildings", David Langton analyzed 220+ buildings, one third of which had attempted LEED standards. If you want a one-image gist, see the bar graph on page 5 of the study (above).

Seems to us you can read these things one of two ways, and David is reading optimistically. First, you can look at the above and note that some projects are building smarter -- gaining gold certification $50/SF cheaper than some silver-certified projects. Or, you can simply use the above as confirmation that it's possible to build really expensive non-LEED-certified buildings.

The study goes on to examine libraries and laboratories and more, and we found ourselves thinking a nice little map of project locations would explain everything...