Why Most “Sustainable” Building Projects Miss the Point Entirely
You know what’s been eating at me lately? How completely backwards we’ve got this whole sustainable building thing. I mean, the intentions are good – everyone wants to build better,…
Why Most Cities Fight Against Sustainable Living (And What the Smart Ones Do Instead)
Last spring I was wandering around Copenhagen – you know, trying to look like I belonged there instead of obviously being an American tourist – and I kept staring at…
Why Most Infrastructure Projects Miss the Point (And How Some Don’t)
I was grabbing coffee in Flagstaff last month when these two engineers at the table next to me got into this heated argument about a water treatment project. One guy…
Why I’m Betting on Microfluidic Electronics Cooling (And You Should Too)
My laptop turned into a space heater again last Thursday while I was reviewing zoning variance applications at my kitchen table. The thing was so hot I couldn’t rest my…
Why Most Sustainability Education Is Missing the Point (And How We Fixed It)
So there I was last spring, sitting in a windowless conference room at UC Davis, watching a PowerPoint presentation about “sustainable innovation curriculum” while the building’s ancient HVAC system wheezed…
Why I Stopped Throwing Away Perfectly Good Building Materials (And You Should Too)
I was standing outside a job site in Louisville last month, watching our crew load up the third dumpster of the week, when it hit me how absolutely backwards this…
Why I Can’t Stop Thinking About That One Building in San Francisco
Last March I dragged my fourteen-year-old to the California Academy of Sciences and spent most of our visit acting like a total architecture nerd, which… okay, I am one, but…
How a Portuguese Hotel Taught Me Everything About Climate-Responsive Design
My laptop crashed right in the middle of a call with this developer from Scottsdale who kept telling me that “buyers don’t give a damn about which way the house…
Why Everyone’s Asking Me About Sustainable Planning Jobs (And What I Actually Tell Them)
Got a text from my cousin’s daughter last week – she’s a junior at UW studying environmental science and wants to know about “sustainability careers” in cities. Made me laugh…
Why I Finally Got My Sustainable Design Certification (And Why It Actually Mattered)
You know what’s weird? I’ve become the person younger architects come to for career advice. Me – the same person who used to roll my eyes at professional development seminars…