Sound impossible? An interesting
but utopian exercise? Not for William McDonough and his internationally renowned
design firm William McDonough + Partners—in fact, this is exactly the kind of
challenge they have set for themselves. Their other design imperatives are equally
idealistic: “Imagine a place that nurtures collaboration and community. Imagine
a building that produces more energy than it consumes. Imagine working in a
building where you feel that you have spent your day outdoors.” McDonough, an
award-winning architect and a leader in sustainable development, will speak
on “Ecological Architecture, Design, and Ethics” Wednesday, December 5, at 7:30
pm in Gamble Auditorium. His visit, part of the Weissman Center for Leadership’s
yearlong focus on architecture, is cosponsored by Mount Holyoke’s Center for
Environmental Literacy (CEL).
“McDonough’s talk will be particularly
relevant to Mount Holyoke as we undertake construction of a new, ‘green’ science
building,” says Thomas Millette, associate professor of geography and director
of the CEL. “In addition, his firm has a long history of designing buildings
that foster connections between people and the environment, and between indoors
and outdoors. Given that the College’s plans for renovating Blanchard Campus
Center include bringing more daylight into the building and creating a stronger
connection between it and Lower Lake, his perspective on the importance of such
connections will be especially interesting.”
McDonough and his firm’s practice
of “environmentally intelligent” architecture has garnered numerous awards,
including a 2001 I.D. Forty Design Award from I.D. magazine. In 1996, he was
the first recipient of the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development, the
country’s highest environmental award, and in 1999 was named “Designer of the
Year” by Interiors magazine. In the same year, Time magazine called him a “Hero
for the Planet,” saying, “his utopianism is grounded in a unified philosophy
that—in demonstrable and practical ways—is changing the design of the world.”
One outstanding example of the
firm’s three-pronged “ecology, equity, and economy” design philosophy is 901
Cherry, part of the Gap, Inc.’s corporate campus in San Bruno, California. Completed
in 1997, the building features interior courtyard atriums that bring daylight
well inside, so that no one’s office or work area is more than thirty feet from
a source of daylight. Energy costs are held in check by a system of nighttime
air flushing, and operable windows as well as a ventilation system running underneath
raised floors ensure that occupants receive plenty of fresh air. These daylight,
cooling, and fresh- air features make the building a huge success in terms of
energy efficiency: it is 30 percent more energy efficient than is required by
California law. One of 901 Cherry’s most appealing features is its grass-covered
roof. Plantings of native grasses and wildflowers provide insulation, while
the roof’s undulating contours visually echo the landscape’s surrounding hills,
integrating building and environment. As McDonough told Time magazine, “Our
idea was that if a bird flew over the building, it would not know that anything
had changed.”
In 2001, the firm transformed another
roof, that of Chicago’s City Hall, originally built in 1911. With its plantings
of more than 100 species of flowers, grasses, vines, shrubs, and trees, the
building’s new “green roof” recalls Midwestern prairies while providing a scenic
oasis for occupants of surrounding skyscrapers. But its value is practical as
well as aesthetic: by reducing storm water runoff by 70 percent, lowering summer
air temperatures, and reducing overall energy consumption, the garden is expected
to reduce the building’s annual heating and cooling costs by $6,000.
Buildings are not McDonough’s only
area of expertise; he’s also—along with German chemist Michael Braungart—cofounder
and principal of McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry, a firm that develops
nontoxic, biodegradable products for such companies as Nike, the Ford Motor
Company, furniture maker Herman Miller, and fabric manufacturer BASF. McDonough
and his colleagues’ work for Nike, for example, has ranged from developing a
completely recyclable sneaker to designing the Nike European headquarters in
Hilversum, the Netherlands, which this year received an award of excellence
from the Washington chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
McDonough, who was born in Japan
in 1951 and grew up in Hong Kong, earned a bachelor of arts degree from Dartmouth
College and a master’s degree from the Yale University School of Architecture
in 1976. He is the former dean of the University of Virginia School of Architecture
and currently holds professorships at the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate
School of Business Administration and at Cornell University. His firm’s projects
have included the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest Education Center in
Clermont, Kentucky; IBM headquarters in Amsterdam; the Palm, Inc. corporate
campus in San Jose, California; and the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts,
among others.
Students are invited to attend
a seminar with McDonough on December 5 at 4 pm. For further information, contact
Tom Millette or Karen Remmler.
