Green Architect Aims High

William McDonough’s pioneering status in the Green Building movement traces back to a time preceding the LEED system and to when the only other entities seemingly doing research on indoor air quality were tobacco companies trying to show that second-hand smoke was not harmful.

But since his design of a green office building for the Environmental Defense Fund in 1984, McDonough has taken part in several major projects and authored the book “Cradle to Cradle,” which spells out his philosophy on what designers should strive to achieve and avoid as they calculate how what they design will affect the planet around them.

Among the major projects the architect has designed and helped build are The Gap headquarters in San Bruno, Calif.; Nike’s European headquarters in The Netherlands; the creation of green rooftop habitats at the Ford Motor River Rouge complex in Dearborn, Mich.; and the design of proposed villages in China that will feature rooftop agriculture.

Speaking to a gathering of community leaders at the Cleveland Clinic in late May, McDonough remarked that while architects, engineers, corporations and governments have adopted many environmentally friendly measures, the change in his view has not been dramatic enough to avert wide scale climatic dangers. “Being less bad is not being good,” he stated.

McDonough said he does not buy into the argument that to change methods of production so that they do not deplete resources will mean the economy must wither away. “The question is not growth or no growth, but what do we want to grow?”

On the topic of materials, McDonough says designers and planners should consider whether recycling methods can be portrayed as “downcycling” or “upcycling.” McDonough defined “downcycling” as instances when materials lose their quality and value, and “upcycling” as when materials retain their value or even gain value.

He cited the carpet padding and carpet recycling and non-toxic manufacturing systems being put in place by Shaw Industries, Dalton, Ga., and others as a noteworthy example of how an industry can make wholesale changes.