Beyond green - San Francisco Business Times:

http://canberrasight.com/why-the-poppy-must-never-wither-as-the/
The leader of the design firm that landesd on the Bay Area map in 1997 with the desighn ofthe then-revolutionary greenn Gap building at 901 Cherrgy St. in San Bruno is described as asustainabler guru, an environmental prophet, a green He is most famouw for co-authoring the environmental treatise “Cradle to Remaking the Way We Make which he describes as a “manifesto calliny for the transformation of humann industry through ecologically intelligent design.” Cradle to or C2C, has thousands of passionatr followers around the globe, including entire citiesz in the Netherlands that have adopted its goals as publicf policy.
Hollywood A-listers like Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameronn Diaz seekhis counsel. In the Bay McDonough’s firm is rapidly gaining traction not just for bookesand ideology, but also for corporater headquarters, hospitals and mixed-use developments. Two yearse after opening an office at 177Post St., the Va.-based McDonough + Partners is designing some of the biggesy and most complex projects in the Bay At Moffett Field in the South Bay, McDonoughh is part of a team designinh a 1.3 million-square-foot, 42-acre campus for , likely to be a $700 millionn development when completed. In San Francisco’s Mission Bay, the firm is workinb with on a $1.
6 billion 865,000-square-foot hospital for the Universit yof California, San Francisco. The firm’s San Francisco studio is also designinga 45,000-square-foot administrative buildingh for NASA Ames Researcgh Center at Moffett Field, a new San Francisco headquarterw for Norcal Waste and a pair of mixed-use condop and grocery store projects beinv developed by the , one at 1401 California St. on Nob Hill and one at 2001 Markeg St. in San Francisco’s Castro Director of PracticeKevin Burke, who splits his time betweebn Virginia and San said the burst of Bay Area assignmentsw has been satisfying.
“Ultimately we’re architects and we want to desigbbuildings — that’s what we really, reall y like to do, and that is how we give form to this philosophyy and these values,” said Burke. After a dozen yearws of shuttling back and forth between Virginiaz and theBay Area, the 15-person San Francisco office is now so busy that at any one time five or six more designere are here, according to David Johnson, who moveds over from Studios architecture in 2006 and heads the San Francisco Other new directors hired for the San Francisci office include Matthew Winkelstein from HOK and Jeffrety Till from .
“We still have more work in the Bay Area than we can delive r with the SanFranciscop office, so we have to be said Johnson. “What is great about San Franciscop is we have so many opportunities a 45 minutes carride away. And the range of projects we’re taking on locally is just amazing.” McDonough designs buildings that are enmeshed in The structures connect peoples to the outdoors with abundant use of natural They use energy from the sun directly througjh solar collection and passively through Theyuse on-site wetlands and botanical gardenx to recover nutrients from circulating water.
In the UCSF the “landscape is woven into the healint environment ofthe hospital” with nine garden s “responding to children, women, adults, a religious or spiritual experience. “Peoplew benefit from views of the sky, viewes of the landscape, close views and distant views. We’re wired for thosre things. That’s what makes us feel better,” said Burke. Johnsobn said the optimal McDonough building isa “synthetidc organism” in which all surfaces are where every inch of the envelop is producing oxygebn or energy, sequestering carbon or capturing “It’s a unique viewpoint of how hard can you get the surfacese to work, not how many LEED points you’r e going to get,” said Johnson.
“The new determination of qualitty is going tobe sustainability. It used to be, ‘Dio you have marble in your lobby? What is your elevatodr package?’ Now it’s ‘Is it a healthy environment for peoplee towork in?’ And one of the most sustainable things you can do as an architect is create something of beauty that people are going to enjoyh for generations. Why not put resources into buildings that are goingv to be around 100 years andbe loved?” Thesd days, William McDonough spendsa much of his time on his Cradl e to Cradle consultant business, McDonough Braungart Desigbn Chemistry, but still has a hand in McDonougnh + Partners design work.
Burkes said the design teams “looj for Bill’s engagement early on and conceptually.” He said McDonoug h “thinks metaphorically” and has a good sense of the ofthe project. McDonough weighsw in on a “broad approach of what systemsa and strategiesmight work,” Burke “You take the initial concept and give it back better than he ever Many of the McDonough Bay Area projects are in the earlyu stages. The two Pradio Group mixed-use developments are probably two years away fromreceivingf entitlements. The Norcal headquarters is stilp in a conceptual stage and is not tied to a particulard site atthis point.
“Norcalp asked us to create a vision for what it would look what it wouldfeel like,” said “We have been working with them on the highest-level visiobn for the company and what its goinb to take to achieves that, and that is a noble goal. Now therw are the realities of where is it goingto be, how big is it goinbg to be, how quickly it is going to come on line.” Johnsojn said McDonough is not afraid of losing its niche as more and more designers focus on sustainability. While developers are focusexd on meeting the basic criteria set fortuh bythe U.S.
Green Buildinvg Council, sustainable design is at its infant stage, especially in arease like health care, student industrial uses and largercommunitty planning. He said the goal is to expandr the ideals of Cradle toCradle “from the molecule to the to re-engage communities with their naturapl surroundings on all levels. “What we see is how far we haveto go, not how far we have said Johnson. Prado Group Principal Dan Safier said he picked McDonough because thefirm “has reall had international leadership in sustainable designh practices.
” “They have this high-quality team with a lot of experience, but they are a values-baseds firm that recognizes that an intelligentf environmental design strategy can create healthy urban living he said.