Standing in that graduate program coordinator’s office at Parsons last spring, I felt like I was speaking a foreign language. “So you want to study… sustainable design?” she said, squinting…
Last Tuesday, I watched a client cry over a coffee table. Not because it was ugly – actually, it was stunning. Hand-carved walnut with these gorgeous live edges that seemed…
My phone lit up at 11:23 PM with a message from Arjun, my contact at a materials testing lab in Bangalore. He’d sent photos of cracked concrete samples from a…
Standing in a corporate boardroom last Tuesday, watching executives debate whether to install "fake plants or real ones" in their new headquarters, I realised we're still missing the point entirely.…
The other day, I found myself standing in a cavernous warehouse in Portland, surrounded by what looked like giant mushroom bricks. The salesperson was explaining how mycelium-based building materials could…
Walking through downtown Portland last month, I stumbled upon something that completely shifted how I think about restoration work. There was this old brick building – probably from the 1920s…
I’ve been tracking my home office productivity metrics for years now, and one pattern kept nagging at me: my best work days consistently happened when I spent time on my…
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the difference between renovation and restoration, especially after some conversations with folks in our church building committee. We’re trying to figure out what…
Last month I walked into a potential client’s headquarters and nearly laughed out loud at the contradiction. Here’s this tech company with a LEED Platinum plaque in their lobby, bragging…
The built environment accounts for 39 percent of the world’s energy-related carbon dioxide emissions — which is the largest area of emissions reduction potential in any sector. Most building design…