Mayor Daley ranks #6 in ID Magazine's list of the 40 most influential people driving design. This places him ahead of Frank Gehry (#12) and Karim Rashid (#22). It is remarkable that a politician is more valued than a couple of prominent architects.

Most interesting is Daley's very public effort at making Chicago a Green city. While visible many of Daley's requirements are not as forward-looking as Portland's or Minneapolis's. But Chicago is an real-estate investor's town and it's great that Daley is getting the ball rolling with his "Chicago Standard" for the design and construction of new municipal buildings. The "Chicago Standard" adopts its criteria for sustainable buildings from the LEED protocol. This is exciting.

What do you think? Do you know what the LEED protocol is?