Spring 2007
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WM+P Teams with Anshen + Allen to Design UCSF Medical Center
University of California, San Francisco has selected the team of William McDonough + Partners and Anshen + Allen to design its Mission Bay hospital complex. The first phase of the $1.3 billion project is already underway and will include a 183-bed children’s hospital, a 36-bed women’s treatment center, and a 70-bed cancer facility. Teaming with an award-winning firm that specializes in healthcare facilities like A+A makes it doubly exciting to explore the synergies between human health and cradle-to-cradle design in our first-ever assignment to design a healthcare facility. Look for updates in the coming months and years.
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 View from the Studio
by Kevin Burke, AIA,
Director of Practice
I recently had the pleasure of reconnecting with Herman Gyr and Lisa Friedman for dinner in Palo Alto during one of my frequent trips to the west coast. Herman and Lisa are two friends who have been long-standing supporters and advocates of William McDonough + Partners. At dinner we caught up on each others’ work over the past couple of years. Herman and Lisa’s company is the Enterprise Development Group, which focuses on strategic transformation and innovation for an astonishingly diverse array of national and international organizations. In between bites of sushi, it became clear to each of us that not only have we been busy, but we’ve also been blessed to be busy doing important, meaningful work. One theme kept coming up during the dinner: “these are amazing times.”
Reflecting on the dinner conversation, I was struck by a couple of recurrent issues, themes that really represent the unique moment and environment that WM+P finds itself in. First, interest in climate change and the global environmental crisis has clearly reached a tipping point, and organizations are developing fundamental commitments to this cause. We are seeing this commitment across all sectors: companies, not-for-profits, utilities, governmental agencies, cities, regions, and states. In the past six months, representatives from each of these areas have approached us to discuss specific ways that we can help them address climate change and the environment in their buildings and their planning.
Second, clients are looking for specific tools for addressing these issues. There’s more commitment than ever before toward developing operative strategies and approaches that can both address global issues and align with the organization’s core mission. And there’s an even greater commitment to monitoring such strategies in order to collect feedback and make constant improvements over time.
This demand for specific tools and approaches has had an impact on the very nature of our practice. Alongside our core mission of delivering high-quality architecture and community design leadership, we are developing the capacity to provide a broad range of consulting services that reflect our eco-effective approach to sustainability. Over the past twelve years while WM+P has practiced in Charlottesville, we have had the privilege of working on a wide array of ambitious projects with visionary clients who have sought innovative solutions to environmental, social, and economic design challenges. In a sense, we’ve been training for this “tipping point” moment for all these years, and with
the opening of our San Francisco studio, we are adding additional capacity and presence to respond to our clients’ important needs more effectively. |
PROJECT NEWS |
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Sarah Heinz House Addition To Open
For more than a century, the Sarah Heinz House has been helping Pittsburgh’s youths gain skills necessary to lead full, productive lives. When its new 35,000-sf addition opens this month, the organization expects to increase its membership from 800 to 1,000 children and expand its programs with features like teaching gardens and a “town hall” that supports greater connectivity to the neighborhoods of the greater North Side. WM+P partnered with Rothschild Doyno Archtects and Siteworks to design the addition, renovate the existing building, and enhance the surrounding landscape.
Visit Sarah Heinz House website >>
View WM+P's project page >> |
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Chapel Hill Council Approves Greenbridge
On Monday February 26, the Town of Chapel Hill approved the innovative mixed-use Greenbridge. The ten-story, 216,540-sf project will break ground as one of the area’s first high-density developments and hopes to offer an alternative to sprawl in the fast-growth setting of the North Carolina Research Triangle. Greenbridge, which incorporates the latest green technologies and has targeted a USGBC LEED® Gold rating, is will begin construction this spring with an anticipated opening of June 2009.
Visit Greenbridge's website >>
View WM+P's project page >> |
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Banff Projects Double Up on AIA Central Virginia Awards
WM+P’s designs for a pair of projects in Banff, Alberta, Canada both earned recognition in the recent AIA Central Virginia Awards. The Bison Courtyard at Bear Street received an Honor Award and its complementary Cave Avenue Homes picked up a Merit Award for Excellence. The projects feature many innovative approaches to environmentally intelligent design and planning that seek to bring the surrounding Canadian Rockies National Park into the town.
Visit Bison Courtyard at Bear Street's website >>
View WM+P's Courtyard at Bear Street's project page >>
Visit Cave Avenue Home's website >>
View WM+P's Cave Avenue Homes project page >>
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VMware Office Nears Completion
Construction on the VMware Corporate Campus in Palo Alto, California, remains on schedule, with completion of Building A expected in May 2007. The first employees will move in around June 8th, and Buildings B, C, D, and E will open in quick succession between June 2007 and January 2008. The design nestles the buildings within the existing forest, preserving beautiful vistas that include dozens of specimen trees and abundant mature landscaping.
Visit VMware's website >>
View WM+P's project page >> |
PEOPLE |
Jeffrey Till Joins WM+P
Jeff Till, AIA, has joined our West Coast Studio as a Director. Jeff arrives at WM+P from Hornberger + Worstell, where he led the green building integration practice that implemented sustainable design strategies on projects including San Diego’s Omni Hotel/Metropolitan mixed-use tower, Sacramento’s Meridian Plaza 2 office and hotel tower, and the W Scottsdale Hotel and Residences. During his twenty-year career with firms such as HOK, C2 Studio Bangkok, and UN Studio Amsterdam, Jeff has built a design portfolio of complex building types and master plans in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. |
Kira Gould to Become New Director of Communications at WM+P
This spring Kira Gould, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP, will join our Charlottesville office as our new Director of Communications. After receiving an MA in Architecture & Design Criticism from the Parsons School of Design/The New School in 1996, Kira became an accomplished journalist covering architecture, design and sustainability for publications like Metropolis, Architectural Record, Architecture, and GreenSource. She has also worked as a senior associate for Gould Evans, a 250-person, eight-office design firm and is the current chair of the AIA Committee on the Environment Advisory Group. Kira will make her debut as the new voice of WM+P in our next newsletter in June. |
OTHER NEWS |
Three Architects at WM+P Gain LEED Accreditation
WM+P staff members Kristin Cory, Christopher James, and Emily McGlohn all recently became USGBC LEED 2.1 Accredited Professionals. Emily is already putting her credentials to good use on the design of Greenbridge which is pursuing LEED Gold certification. |
WM+P Support Local San Francisco Initiatives
William McDonough, FAIA, is a founding partner of the Business Council on Climate Change (BC3), a partnership co-sponsored by the Bay Area Council, the San Francisco Department of the Environment and the UN Global Compact. The upcoming kick-off event will recognize companies for their commitment to the BC3 and the Principles on Climate Leadership.WM+P has also become a supporter of the Vote Solar Initiative, a San Francisco-based non-profit organization that “works with state governments to build sustainable solar markets, removing regulatory barriers and laying the necessary groundwork for a solar future.” WM+P is fully committed to their efforts to effectively harness the world’s abundant solar income.
WM+P has also become a supporter of the Vote Solar Initiative, a San Francisco-based non-profit organization that “works with state governments to build sustainable solar markets, removing regulatory barriers and laying the necessary groundwork for a solar future.” WM+P is fully committed to their efforts to effectively harness the world’s abundant solar income. |
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Jose Atienza, AIA Teaches Studio at UVA School of Architecture
WM+P Director Jose Atienza has become an adjunct faculty member at the University of Virginia School of Architecture. He is currently teaching a studio exploring design at the varying scales of the object, building and city and focusing on the relationships between natural, formal, and cultural systems, materials, and virtual organizations and structures. Jose continues his full-time engagement at WM+P where he is working on the design of Greenbridge. |
UPCOMING EVENTS
William McDonough to Speak at Building a Low Carbon World Conference 2007
On April 26th, Founding Partner William McDonough will open the Building a Low Carbon World Conference in London. Sponsored by Quintain Estates and Development PLC, the conference will host political, business, and environmental leaders at the famous Royal Geographical Society “to examine the impact of the ‘built’ and urbanized environment and what measures can be taken to reduce the carbon footprint of existing and new developments.” Other speakers include Robyn Beavers, Coordinator for Corporate and Environmental Strategy at Google; London Mayor Ken Livingston; Adrian Wyatt, CEO of Quintain Estates and Development PLC; and Stuart Rose, CEO of Marks & Spencer.
March 16
William McDonough delivers the evening keynote to the University of Calgary’s Sustainable Environment Design Series in Calgary, AB, Canada.
March 19
Lance Hosey, AIA, Director, will offer thoughts “Toward a Humane Environment” with University of Kentucky students in Lexington
March 22
Diane Dale, ASLA, JD, Director of Community Design, will present the Kanawha New Community plan with client Brian Goray of Greenhawk Partners, LLC, at Greenprints’ 2007 Sustainable Communities by Design Conference in Atlanta.
March 22
That evening, Diane Dale will give a lecture, “Toward More Sustaining Communities” at Vanderbilt School of Law.
March 26
William McDonough gives the opening keynote to the National Association of Home Builders Green Building Conference in St. Louis, MO
April 26
Diane Dale delivers the Albrecht Memorial Lecture at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
May 1
William McDonough presents opening keynote to the Green Building Tradeshow in Vancouver, BC
May 2 - 3
Mark Rylander, AIA, Director, will teach two continuing education classes at the 2007 AIA National Convention and Design Exposition in San Antonio, Texas. He will discuss “The Ecological Design Workshop for the Next Generation” with young architects on May 2 and instruct architects on “Sustainability 101” on May 3.
May 3 – 4
Lance Hosey will give a series of presentations at the AIA National Convention in San Antonio. Topics include “Women in Green,” “Sustainability, Design, and Innovation,” “Ecological Literacy,” and “Form, Ecology, and Place”. His co-panelists will include Kira Gould, Susan Maxman, Sandy Mendler, Robin Guenther, Susan Szenasy, Henry Siegel, Vivian Loftness, Margot McDonald, Robert Koester, James Timberlake and Rick Schneider.
May 4
Kevin Burke, AIA, Director of Practice, will present “Towards Eco-effective Design” at the AIA 2007 National Convention and Design Exposition in San Antonio.
Get complete information on William McDonough's upcoming appearances at McDonough.com. |
As always, we look forward to sharing more news as it happens.
Yours, in abundance,
William McDonough + Partners
Architecture and Community Design
700 E. Jefferson St.
Charlotesville, VA 22902
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William McDonough + Partners
Architecture and Community Design
177 Post St., Suite 920
San Francisco, CA 94108
newsletter@mcdonough.com
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