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Solid Green Practice | |
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Solid Green Practice William McDonough + Partners Locations: Charlottesville, Virginia, and San Francisco, California
Architect William McDonough's first major project, completed in 1985, was the Environmental Defense Fund headquarters in New York City. From there, McDonough went on to become one of the nation's most recognized architects devoted to sustainable design. "For us, these considerations are intrinsic to the design process — completely embedded in it," says Kira Gould, communications director for Charlottseville-based William McDonough + Partners. The firm pursues LEED certification when that is a priority for clients, and its portfolio includes several projects at the Platinum level. Three of the firm's projects were honored as AIA/COTE Top Ten Green Projects during the first few years of the awards program: the Herman Miller Greenhouse, Holland, Michigan (in 1997); Oberlin College's Lewis Center, Oberlin, Ohio (in 2002); and Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth, Massachusetts (in 2004). McDonough also cowrote the seminal book Cradle to Cradle, about transforming industry to design products for perpetual material reuse cycles, followed by the Cradle to Cradle product certification system, both undertaken with collaborator Michael Braungart. KieranTimberlake Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Winner of the 2008 Architecture Firm Award from the American Institute of Architects, KieranTimberlake has been recognized for a variety of sustainable projects, including two LEED Platinum-rated projects that were named AIA/COTE Top Ten Green Projects: an addition to Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C. (in 2007), and the Sculpture Building and Gallery at Yale University (in 2008). The interests of founders Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake include mass customization and integrated design. "A long-standing commitment to and keen understanding of sustainable design in particular are among the fruits of the firm’s unusually thorough design research, a firm approach that focuses on new materials, processes, assemblies and products," said Hubert Murray, past president of the Boston Society of Architects, in nominating KieranTimberlake for the AIA Firm Award. Mithun Locations: Seattle, Washington, and San Francisco, California
Mithun has operated continuously since 1949. In the last decade, with the rise of sustainable design, it has received widespread attention for such green projects as the firm's own Seattle offices on a reclaimed pier on Puget Sound, its LEED Gold-rated IslandWood environmental education center on nearby Bainbridge Island, and its Lloyd Crossing plan for a neighborhood in Portland — the only planning project to be named to the AIA/COTE Top Ten Green Projects list (in 2005). It also earned Top Ten listings for IslandWood (in 2002), and for REI flagship stores in Seattle (1999) and Denver (2001). Currently Mithun is designing a new prototype for prefabricated modular housing with a private developer in Seattle. Farr Associates Location: Chicago, Illinois
This Windy City architecture and urban planning firm offers a host of design services for projects at many scales. Farr Associates holds the distinction of being the first firm in the world to have designed three LEED Platinum buildings, including a home with net-zero energy use and the Chicago Center for Green Technology, which was named a Chicago Center for Green Technology2003 AIA/COTE Top Ten Green Project. Firm leader Douglas Farr is on the board of the Congress for the New Urbanism, and was the founding chair of the group developing the LEED for Neighborhood Development rating system. He's been a key voice for integrating sustainable design and New Urbanist concepts. The New York Times called Farr Associates "the most prominent of the city's growing cadre of ecologically sensitive architects." Farr Associates has come to offer a range of services, including designing codes and formulating interwoven neighborhoods of built structure and greenspace, as well as traditional architecture, preservation, and interiors services. Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems Location: Austin, Texas
If you call this group of designers an architecture firm, you're likely to be corrected. Founded in 1975, the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems is a nonprofit education, demonstration, and research organization dedicated to demonstrating the potential of life-cycle planning and design. As previously profiled in ArchitectureWeek, CMPBS undertakes projects based on their potential contribution to site-specific, regional, and global sustainability and human health, and actively pursues collaborations with associate organizations, businesses, and professional firms. For the City of Seattle Justice Center by NBBJ, for example, CMPBS provided analysis and research to make the case for sustainable measures. The organization also designs plenty of buildings on its own, as well as master plans, such as one for Longju Sustainable Village in China's Szechuan Province. >>> Brian Libby is a Portland, Oregon-based freelance writer who has also published in Metropolis, Architectural Record, the Christian Science Monitor, and the New York Times. More by Brian Libby Discuss this article in the Architecture Forum...
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