Paint this hotel bright green

The Proximity Hotel has 100 solar rooftop panels and oversized windows

Below is a little ditty I wrote for “The Boston Globe” (it ran Feb. 8, 2009) about what could these days be called North Carolina’s most famous lodging: Proximity Hotel in Greensboro. The farm connection? Its Print Works Bistro menu contains lots o’ local farm products.  Proximity’s claim to fame: the country’s most energy efficient hotel, with a LEED Platinum rating.

US Green Building Council awarded its only lodging platinum to Proximity Office-park setting belies this hotel’s No. 1 green ranking

US Green Building Council awarded its only lodging platinum to Proximity

GREENSBORO, N.C. – It’s a happy coincidence that the greenest hotel in the country is on Green Valley Road in Greensboro.

Last fall, US Green Building Council’s only platinum award given to a hotel.

While the hotel’s setting in an urban office park doesn’t scream green, its construction and operation do, allowing it to use 40 percent less energy and 35 percent less water than a comparable hotel, according to owner Quaintance-Weaver Restaurants and Hotels, a local company. Proximity’s dozens of sustainable features include oversized windows for natural light, 100 solar rooftop panels, and an elevator that generates electricity on its way down.

Even its popular restaurant, Print Works Bistro, has risen to the challenge with such innovations as the use of geothermal energy for the refrigeration equipment and oven hoods that use sensors to set the power according to the kitchen’s needs.

Sweeping view of hotel lobby

The unsuspecting guest or diner will see only a high-design ultrachic hotel and restaurant, but the hotel staff is happy to give a behind-the-scenes tour. It’s almost enough to forgive Proximity’s use of disposable toiletry bottles instead of dispensers.

The City Suite

Proximity Hotel and Print Works Bistro, 704 Green Valley Road, Greensboro, N.C., 800-379-8200, 336-379-8200, http://www.proximityhotel.com/. Doubles start at $249.

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2 Responses to Paint this hotel bright green

  1. karel says:

    I say yes, paint it green, because green is not dangerous. It is nature.
    Why? Some 20 years ago in our village ( they like me to say city) a hotel was built. And they painted it pink. In a wink everybody called it the ‘Homotel’. Although our society is said to be tolerant, many people have other thoughts about the homo-issue. Anyhow at that era.
    Green is more accepteble

    • didaniel says:

      Karel, only you can get away with saying this. 😉 And it’s true. People think the Dutch are so tolerant, but it’s really a small group of Dutchies in the big city, just like it is in US, a la SF and NYC.