Ravished Community Goes Green(ish)

The city of Greensburg, Kansas was almost totally destroyed by a tornado in May 2007. The city decided to rebuild all of the city owned buildings to LEED Platinum standards. I guess it only makes sense that a city with the name of Greensburg goes green. I'm just not sure if the city went about it in a smart way. A recent article talked about how the architecture program at the University of Kansas designed and built a LEED Platinum art center for the community. It is great that the university got involved but I wonder if the school's and/or the community's priorities are skewed. The art center cost around $800,000. This may not be a wise use of money when only 750 of the 1,400 residents of Greensburg have homes. I mean how sustainable is a community that has a LEED art center but the residents don't have homes. I think by definition a sustainable community needs homes. It has been a a year and a half and only half of the population has returned to the city. Plus I question the sustainability of a totally glass covered building in a tornado zone, but that is a whole different issue in and of its self.