LOVE+REGENERATION • Winter 2024 • Volume 6, Issue One

A Quarterly Journal from McLennan Design.

Rediscovering our relationship to the natural world.

Volume 6 Issue 1

REGENERATIVE URBAN PLANNING LEAP LEBANON • JOSH FISHER

A LIVING COMMUNITY FUTURE JASON F. MCLENNAN

CAMP EVERHAPPY SAN JUAN ISLAND ESCAPE

SUSTAINABLE COPPER MINE IN ARGENTINA

BY JOHANNA COLLINS & STEPHEN GIBSON

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Winter Reflections Winter is always a period of reflection for me as the days grow so short and somehow the world seems more still. But now at the end of the first month of the year spring feels like its not far away. On Bainbridge Island our team has grown – now to 16 people – our largest as a studio and we are thriving under our new paradigm as an integral, yet distinct part of Perkins&Will. Starting the new year we have projects emerging in Illinois, California, Virginia and Minnesota, with continued work in Argentina, Idaho and Washington State. We are busy and working hard.

2024 promises to be a a tumultuous year politically and many of us are bracing for the crazy election cycle in the United States. Much is at stake and we are weary of a possible return to MAGA days where civility, truth, equality and decency were shouldered and fear, dishonesty, pettiness and a meanness of spirit reared its head. It's possible democracy in the US is at stake this year and remarkable that January 6th was not a strong enough wake up call. Let’s hope that better forces prevail again.

In this edition we share many things; a compelling travelogue from our team and their incredible visit to Argentina – a place where we dream of a new paradigm for mineral extraction; a return to an article I wrote many years ago – describing a vision for communities of the future -one that we need more than ever; a tribute to my late friend ibrahim abdulmatin who we lost in 2023; and updates on our work – including a fun focus on Camp Everhappy, my summer escape place that was featured in DWELL in November. There is more of course, and I invite you all to spend some time looking through these pages.

With warmth,

Jason F. McLennan Principal, McLennan Design Chief Sustainability Officer, Perkins&Will

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Los Azules, Argentina

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McLennan Design respectfully acknowledges the Suquamish and Duwamish peoples, who, throughout the generations, stewarded and thrived on the land where we live and work.

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WINTER 2024

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Jason F. McLennan

MARKETING MANAGER

Jay Torrell

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Susan Roth, Josh Fisher

CONTRIBUTORS

Josh Fisher, Johanna Collins, Stephen Gibson, Galen Carlson, Kishore Kandasamy, Trevor Butler

SOCIAL MEDIA

Winter 2024, Volume 6, Issue 1 LOVE + REGENERATION is a quarterly publication of McLennan Design, LLC. © 2024 by McLennan Design / Perkins&Will ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Content may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission and is intended for informational purposes only.

Cover: Stephen Gibson (photo of the Andes Mountains) Backcover Poem: ©2019 by James Crews “Winter Morning,” from Gratefulness.org, (2019)

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BAINBRIDGE ISLAND STUDIO 1580 Fort Ward Hill Road Bainbridge Island, Washington 98110 mclennan-design.com perkinswill.com/studio/bainbridge-island admin@mclennan-design.com KANSAS CITY STUDIO 1475 Walnut Street Kansas City, MO 64106 perkinswill.com/studio/kansas-city

what’s inside 8

Off Grid – Los Azules

by Johanna Collins & Stephen Gibson

18 LEAP Lebanon

by Josh Fisher

28 A Living Community Future

by Jason F. McLennan

34 Camp Everhappy

featured in DWELL Magazine

40 Auroville Way

by Kishore Kandasamy

42 Studio 101

What are we reading?

44 46 48 50 52 54

Tribute: ibrahim abdul-matin Planet Positive Awards: HMTX Product: Mohawk Project Update: Renton Shop Featured Artist: Cory Bennett Anderson About

photoWINTER

by Kyle2024 Johnson | 7

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McLennan Design/P&W Bainbridge Island architects Johanna Collins, Stephen Gibson, and Dale Duncan traveled over 7,000 miles to Argentina to begin the process of designing a first of its kind copper mining camp in the Southern Andes Mountains.

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...traveling thousands of feet up into the Andes to visit one of the world’s most important copper mines and finding an experience that is vastly different from any other mine in the world.

Imagine stepping foot into the future of the industry. In a world needing to adjust quickly to tackle climate change and adopt renewable technologies, copper is a fundamental building block. Copper mining has traditionally had a large environmental impact – until now.

The Los Azules Copper mine, as developed by McEwen Copper, promises to be the first major copper mine in the world to be developed around key regenerative principles. These guiding principles were developed to reframe the whole team’s approach to sustainable innovation within the mining industry and set forth high-reaching goals. The development seeks to significantly reduce the environmental footprint of mining operations by developing the latest renewable and environmentally responsible technologies and processes. Wherever possible, the project is seeking to have long-term net positive impacts on the greater Andes ecosystem, the lives of miners, and the citizens of nearby communities, while contributing positively to the local and national economy of Argentina. The project has adopted an industry-leading charter with a series of mission-critical goals for the creation of the world's greenest mine.

McLennan Design – a world leader in regenerative development and green building – has been commissioned by McEwen Copper to

develop the first ‘Living Mining Camp’ that will provide for a greatly improved experience. Here, the workforce will live within a village that is ecologically restorative in its operations.

The mining camp is being positioned as a “Living Community/Living Building Challenge” project as defined and administered by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI). ILFI is widely considered the world’s most stringent and progressive green building protocol. Los Azules will be the first mining camp in the world to strive for this certification and will be one of the biggest projects – the largest in the southern hemisphere – to achieve such an undertaking.

Some of the team While work on the mining camp in Calingasta, with the Andes in the has been ramping up, our team background. has been working with our client team, a local architect, and a team of local consultants on a logistics camp in Calingasta, which is now under construction. The camp is comprised of labs for ore testing, warehouses for sample storage, dormitories and a dining hall for workers, offices, and a few guest suites, and a water treatment facility, where all the water on site is treated and reused. This camp, just like the mining camp, is centered around key regenerative principles.

Deep green and regenerative projects require innovative thinking and strong teamwork.

After a few years of remote collaboration, the team had a chance to visit Argentina, meet the local team and have some much needed “boots on the ground” time.

This article takes you on the journey along with us. Hope you enjoy!

by Johanna Collins & Stephen Gibson

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DAYS TRAVELED: AIR TRAVEL: SUV TRAVEL:

SEATTLE

LOS ANGELES

8 13,325 Miles 726 Miles

MILES 954 5,569 153 6,676

AIR TRAVEL Seattle to Los Angeles Los Angeles to Santiago, Chile Santiago to Mendoza, Argentina Total Flight

MILES 115 108 140 726

ROAD TRAVEL (Argentina) Mendoza to San Juan San Juan to Calingasta Calingasta to Los Azules Total Roundtrip

MILES 1,526 4,169 954 6,649

AIR TRAVEL Mendoza to Lima, Peru Lima to Los Angeles (USA) Los Angeles to Seattle Total Flight

LIMA, PERU LOS AZULES CALINGASTA

SAN JUAN

SANTIAGO, CHILE

SAN JUAN, ARGENTINA

MENDOZA

SANTIAGO

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Lunch with the client team at Bodega Vistalba

After landing in Argentina and meeting our team face to face for the very first time, we got to enjoy a taste of the region at the local bodega, Bodega Vistalba. Enjoying each other's company along with some great food and wine was a treat and a wonderful start to our journey.

Meetings...

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Mendoza is a city in Argentina’s Cuyo region and the heart of Argentina's wine country, famed for Malbecs and other red wines. Its many bodegas (wineries) offer tastings and tours. The city has wide, leafy streets lined with modern and art deco buildings, and smaller plazas surrounding Plaza Independencia, site of subterranean Museo Municipal de Arte Moderno, displaying modern and contemporary art.

Ore sample storage in Calingasta

Steel fabrication in San Juan

After Mendoza the team traveled to San Juan.

There we had a great opportunity to meet with the local suppliers and manufacturers, who are doing an amazing job manufacturing products for the operations camp, located in Calingasta. The Calingasta camp is currently under construction, and we visited it as well.

Posada Paso de los Patos in Barreal, near Calingasta

We were very impressed with the level of craft and attention to detail the local team is putting into making their products. As we all know, specifying and using local products is not only good for the economy but also associated with significant carbon reduction, as compared to importing goods.

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View of the Andes from Barreal.

Public art along the road to Calingasta.

Client, local architects, and a translator outside an existing warehouse. This building will be enlarged for a kitchen and dining room to serve the staff.

Waking up rested to the breathtaking views of the Andes, we traveled approximately 40 kilometers north, to visit the logistics camp site in Calingasta for some much needed "boots on the ground" time.

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The Calingasta site was previously surrounded by orchards, and this is a former cider house. We are renovating this building into a Visitor Center and spaces for water treatment and solar power storage to support the project’s net-zero energy and water goals.

Large concrete cylinder that was part of a cider press.

The Andes Mountains are a mountain range that runs along the western coast of South America.

They are the longest mountain chain in the world, stretching over 4,000 miles from Colombia in the north to Tierra del Fuego in the south. The Andes are made up of high plateaus and peaks, with many summits exceeding 20,000 feet.

Inside the cider house, which has a beautiful board-formed concrete structure and block walls

Tanks under the floor that were used to store cider.

Ore sample storage - there are hundreds of these boxes on-site already and many more to come.

Yellow barn doors, which will be restored and reused.

Mulberry tree thriving at the edge of the site, adjacent to an irrigation canal.

We enjoyed a delicious lunch at an organic farm kitchen in Calingasta

After lunch we loaded into 4WD trucks and embarked to the Los Azules mine camp high in the Andes, very near the Chile frontier. The trip covers only about 50 miles but takes almost four hours via gravel roads and over passes above 14,000’, which is nearly as high as Mt. Rainier.

Pictured (from left): Johanna, Dale, and client Fabio.

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The first visit

We had to drive through several water crossings along the way.

On to the next destination...

Our next stop was the Los Azules camp. The elevation at the site ranges between 11,000 and 14,800 feet above sea level..

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Temporary dining room.

Vegas (wetlands) near the mine site are quite beautiful.

Dale and Stephen in front of the site of the future Regenerative camp.

We had to stop along the way for health checks to ensure that we were not suffering from altitude sickness.

Temporary camps have been erected to support preliminary testing near the mine site.

Views across the vega to the site of the future Regenerative Camp, which is planned to house up to 2,000 people while generating all its own power and treating all water and waste.

The proposed site for the Regenerative Camp is in the background at the foot of the hill on the left.

Upon returning to San Juan, we had an opportunity to tour the Teatro Bicentenario and Anchipurac Environmental Center, the most sustainable building in Argentina.

Headed home...

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Rendering: McLennan Design 18 | LOVE+REGENERATION

I N N OVAT I O N

DISTRICT

Creating a 9,000+ acre innovation mixed-use district that will be a global leader in technology, manufacturing, and sustainable development within central Indiana.

by Josh Fisher Associate, Director of Visualization WINTER 2024 | 19

Industrial Mega Site

Industrial Advanced Manufacturing

Storm water Wetland Park Recreational & Ecological Corridors

Mixed-Use & Village Center

Big-4-Trail Park

Pictured here is a rendering illustrating the scale and character of the development’s future mixed-use village center.

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Credit: LEAP

A new 9,000+ acre mixed-use development plan in Lebanon, Indiana as part of the LEAP initiative

At the heart

of our studio is a motivation to create spaces for both people and places to thrive. Whether we are helping create a home for a single family or thousands of residents, a single workplace or an entire business and industry district, or even mixeduse developments for new amenities and community building we look for ways to promote abundant opportunities for all life, and to do so with design that adds to the public realm in meaningful ways. The LEAP Innovation District is a project where we were able to work at the master-planning level and help the state of Indiana create a framework for the next century of advanced high-tech industry, manufacturing, and innovation through a new mixed-use development in Lebanon, Indiana as part of the LEAP initiative.

McLennan Design is the lead sustainability architect and co-designed the masterplan and development frameworks with MKSK Studio for LEAP Lebanon.

Our team helped develop and oversee the urban planning, sustainability guidelines, and design for future manufacturing and industrial sites, new-urbanist inspired mixed-use town center, and walkable neighborhoods, all filled with parks, squares, courtyards, and a districtwide trail connecting all sites together with functional ecological riparian corridors and wetland parks.

In the coming decades, LEAP will have a significant positive impact throughout Central Indiana and the Midwest by becoming a model of healthy, stewardship-minded community development through sustainable and regenerative building practices. The project will promote ecological diversity, restoration of natural landscapes, and integrate resiliency through green infrastructure and responsible water management that promote abundant biodiversity, enrich human health, and create beautiful public greenspaces accessible across the district. The technology and manufacturing sites will serve as a demonstration of innovation, sustainable design, and signal the aims of LEAP to become a global leader in developing healthy, smart, and resilient communities that are prepared for the future.

BY THE NUMBERS Location Lebanon, Indiana Client PURE, IEDC (Indiana Economic Development Corporation) Size 9,000 acres+ Role Lead Sustainability Architect Development Frameworks Urban Plan Visualization Year 2022 – 2050 Partners & Collaborators MKSK Studios Christopher B. Burke Engineering Challenges Responsible Industry Natural Systems Better Communities Typology Masterplan Landscape Architecture Services Visualization Master Planning Land Use Planning Development Framework Sustainable Design

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LEAP Lebanon is a new community positioned to be the center for advanced sustainable manufacturing and industry. This is an opportunity to make LEAP one of the greenest new developments within the United States for responsible development practices.

McLennan Design and MKSK led in creating a series of high level vision targets that together make up the “Project Vision”.

Framework Principles The Healthiest Community in the Midwest

America’s First De-Carbonized Planned Community

Health and wellness are important considerations for people moving to a new community. LEAP is being designed as the ‘healthiest community in the Midwest, and will feature a variety of leading initiatives to make it so. These initiatives include building design, outdoor experiences, restoration of the natural environment and overall cohesive compatibility between the built and natural environments throughout the site.

LEAP will become the first new community planned entirely around the elimination of fossil fuels - making it cleaner, safer, quieter and an all-electric community serving residents and businesses. Renewable Utility Systems, transportation options, and carbon offset strategies will assist in creating a lower dependence on fossil fuels.

A Smart Interconnected City of the Future

America’s Most Resilient Community

LEAP will become a highly sought out place of business with a focus on leading edge technologies of the future. Through high speed internet, smart technologies, renewable power integration, and smart infrastructure, communities within LEAP will be highly connected and technologically advanced.

LEAP will become America’s safest and most resilient community, able to withstand disruption, inclement weather and other natural disasters, providing a safe haven in challenging times.

Advanced utilities and infrastructure create higher resiliency and self sufficiency for LEAP.

A Global Leader in Water Management

America’s Greenest New Community

LEAP will become a global model of responsible water management and a role model for communities in times of water scarcity. Stormwater will be effectively managed through a network of natural and man-made waterways and additional water guidelines will help collect, distribute, and reuse water throughout the entire site.

LEAP plans to become America’s greenest new community through a variety of measures embedded within the master plan and community planning pattern. The goal is to create greater ecological diversity and life within the boundaries of the community.

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5

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Renderings: LEAP

Proposed Land Use & Town Development The district is envisioned to include a mix of larger scale advanced manufacturing targeting tomorrow’s technological economy and walkable, livable new-urbanist style community hubs. Creating a framework like this is an antidote to suburban sprawl and builds a framework for functioning urbanity with public transportation within a conservative Midwest community.

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New Neighborhoods

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Industrial Mega Site

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Recreational & Ecological Corridors

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Industrial Advanced Manufacturing

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Mixed-Use / Village Center

Our philosophy centered around creating linkages between old and new towns while working within an ecological framework.

At the heart of the district, and alongside the well known Big 4 Trail that bisects our property, is the mixed-use village. Here, a vibrant center will be created through denser development that integrates residential, retail, commercial uses, education, office, hospitality, and other uses. This village will offer future residents and workers a walkable community integrated with active transportation, public art, recreational amenities, and green infrastructure.

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Vibrant People & Nature Based Development The entire development and future site are formed by first creating a nature-based framework that ensures a healthy, continuous, and contiguous ecological corridor based on existing drainage ditches, creeks, and disconnected pockets of riparian forest. This key move enables the entire district to have an abundance of biodiverse spaces providing both habitat for native plants and wildlife such as birds, butterflies, bees, rabbits, and deer, while also acting as a new recreational space for integrated trails and parks. Future development will have access to these corridors distributed throughout the network, providing exposure to recreation, shading, and maximizing health and wellness opportunities for mental, physical, and behavioral development and connection to nature for children and adults. Additionally, the district wide system of ecological corridors will be designed to naturally capture, WETLAND PARK Recreational Amenity & Functional Natural Water Treatment

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treat, and recharge the on-site aquifers through a network of bioswales, rain gardens, and wetlands. This eliminates the need for intensive underground infrastructure that inevitably ages and becomes obsolete and instead daylights water infrastructure providing habitat, utility, and biophilic landscapes.

Rather than thinking of green spaces as an afterthought, LEAP is distinguished as a new planning framework in its basis of regenerative design that remains flexible for a variety of future developments but not at the expense of losing connection to nature and ecological spaces.

Future development whether it is for manufacturing or industry, commercial use, or residential will be able to take advantage of a district-wide green network that is both beautiful and ecologically functional.

MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENT Diversity of Program & Community

Credit: LEAP

CULTURAL & TRANSIT HUBS A Dynamic District for the Surrounding Region with Recreational Amenities and Facilities

Credit: LEAP

NATIVE LANDSCAPE Local Plants & Trees for Place-making & Resilient Landscapes

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Regenerative Neighborhoods & Improved Quality of Life Residential areas, both single-family and multi-family, will be in neighborhoods filled with native landscaping, walkable safe streets, authentic architectural expression, and a feeling of community with a variety of amenities linked together through the district and neighborhood pathway system.

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Authentic Architectural Expression

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Native Landscape

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Neighborhood Pedestrian Pathways

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Natural Stormwater Systems

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Community Amenities

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Safe Streets

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District Energy System

Rendering: McLennan Design

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by Jason F. McLennan

(Excerpt from Transformational Thought III and also appeared in YES! Magazine)

I first wrote this article for the Winter edition of Yes! Magazine as a small essay to help people imagine a more positive vision for the cities of tomorrow. I then repurposed it for Trimtab magazine (ILFI’s online publication) while in the last year of my tenure as the CEO of the International Living Future Institute. It finally ended up in the second edition of my Transformative Thought book series with Ecotone Publishing.

I’m sharing it again with a new community of readers since the look back into urban planning history – and the look forward to human centered civilization – is still relevant nearly a decade later. I hope it provides an inkling of the possible to those in our network of McLennan Design and Perkins&Will. - Jason F. McLennan

IF

there’s one thing that’s certain, it’s that the future hasn’t happened yet. How we will live a few decades from now is anything but clear, despite predictions from our wisest architects, planners, politicians, philosophers, futurists, and science fiction writers.

For anyone committed to creating a more sustainable and just culture, here’s a sobering exercise: Try looking into the past as a way of tracking society’s expectations for itself. Look back a few decades and see how yesterday’s visionaries predicted we’d be living now. I must do this routinely in my work in setting standards and developing tools for change at the International Living Future Institute. So I can tell you a common thread weaves through most fictionalized, artistic, and scientific forecasts: that the ongoing march of technological progress will continue unabated, further mechanizing our experience as humans and separating us from nature until everything we need is provided by machines and computers whose intelligence surpasses that of their operators. A companion theme in futuristic prophecies is the subjugation and taming of nature or, in extreme cases, nature’s total elimination. In these depictions, there is little room for non-human life.

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Metropolis

Blade Runner

Broadacre City

Broadacre City

By Kjell Olsen - originally posted to Flickr as Wright Sketches for Broadacre City

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Think for a moment about the sheer bulk of stories you’ve read and movies you’ve seen, and how many of them warn of a bleak future for society — books such as Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and a catalogue of dystopian cinema: Metropolis, Blade Runner, Road Warrior, Terminator, and Wall-E, just to begin the short list. The current epidemic of zombies chasing after us through our popular culture is, I think, nothing less than a psychological manifestation of our species’ sense of worthlessness. The undead trudge through our cities consuming us like a cancer.

What better symbol of hopelessness and lack of self-worth could we possibly conjure up?

After World War II, there was a brief age of technological optimism. People, particularly Americans, believed in the promise of new frontiers. We saw residential and commercial potential in everything from our emerging suburbs to our rising office towers — we even pictured ourselves living “soon” on the moon or in terraformed space colonies.

In the mid-20th century, we were suddenly (and curiously) willing to dump models of living and community that had worked well for hundreds of years in favor of these new ideas. We raced to build an automobile-dependent world, lined with interstates and freeways that would provide the straightest path toward the idealized future. Usually these new freeways carved through our least affluent neighborhoods, separating rich from poor — and typically, black from white. It is tragic that many of our first and largest social experiments in reshaping community were conducted in disadvantaged communities, most often populated by African American residents. Most of these social experiments supplanted viable working communities with “new urban visions” that increased crime and diminished community bonds. It should not be lost on us that planning paradigms have often tested ideas on the poorest among us, only to reinforce race and class distinctions once the polished plans are eventually implemented.

Many famous architects of the last century proposed plans for communities that, while well-intentioned at the time, had seriously negative outcomes. In 1924, architect and planner Le Corbusier unveiled his Radiant City, a proposal to bulldoze the heart of Paris and replace it with tall, monolithic towers — something Paris wisely ignored.

Unfortunately, his ideas gained traction in American planning circles, and cities here lacked the wisdom of French city planners. Chicago’s Cabrini Green and St. Louis’ PruittIgoe (both public housing projects) mimicked Le Corbusier’s model only to be torn down after a few decades because the living conditions in these concrete environments grew so dreadful. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Broadacre City concept, which in the 1950s pictured “people living in parks connected by highways,” brought us the decentralized sprawl that now mars our landscapes, separates people from the natural world, and discourages healthy walkable communities.

Meanwhile, no positive, ecologically grounded conception of the future has been presented convincingly to counter these assumptions in our collective consciousness.

Most futurists, whether basing their predictions on fact or fiction, seem so focused on techno-marvels they omit resilient environments and healthy communities from the stories they proffer. As a result, a more pessimistic, less natural set of mythologies has shaped our default assumptions about where we seem to be headed. We have grown used to imagining an increasingly mechanistic future, with greater and greater densities, but what we have forgotten is that a future that crowds out the natural world is not simply bleak. It is impossible. A world without a healthy and vibrant natural biosphere cannot sustain human life.

Chicago’s Cabrini Green and St. Louis’ Pruitt-Igoe (both public housing projects) mimicked Le Corbusier’s model only to be torn down after a few decades because the living conditions in these concrete environments grew so dreadful.

Flickr Creative Commons / Paul Knittel

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The good news is that a child-centered city is not simply generous; it’s practical. And what nurtures small people often helps our elders as well.

DEBUNKING THE “INEVITABLE” Despite what the commercial real-estate industry or sciencefiction authors might want us to imagine, our future does not have to be defined exclusively by megacities, mile-high skyscrapers, machines that do everything for us, and hyperdensity filled with flying cars. This “culture of inevitability,” defined by popular culture as well as market-driven development — despite being an imaginary concept — lulls us into inaction because it can seem futile to resist something so inescapable.

Remember: The future hasn’t happened yet. With enough people, wisdom, and ideas it’s possible to resist the culture of inevitability. We’ve done remakings of cities, towns, cultures, religions, governments, and more. We changed every community in America after World War II from ones that functioned primarily around walking and streetcars, to ones that function to serve automobiles. Now, clearly, it is time to switch to a more resilient paradigm. Human behavior is shaped in large part by our ability to pursue what we can imagine.

The task before us now is to harness the power of imagination to create a different future — one of our own choosing, and one crafted to sustain our communities, ourselves, and the other creatures with which we share this planet.

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REIMAGINING A MORE LIVABLE FUTURE The Human Revolution To take control of our next evolution, we must embrace and prioritize what it means to be human; what it means to live in concert with nature. Creating a truly living community will mean changing our role on — and as a part of — the planet. It starts by reimagining our role as a species — not as separate from and superior to others, but inextricably linked to all other life and with a profound purpose as steward or gardener, helping to ensure that each act of our doing creates a net positive benefit to the greater web of life.

Instead of Homo sapiens we become (a term I have coined) Homo regenesis. Homo regenesis, which suggests moving beyond our current state as Homo sapiens, is suggestive of our next evolution to a state of being with a profound love of life; an affection for and affinity with living organisms and natural systems that is prioritized over a fondness for technology and mechanized systems. Understanding Homo regenesis means understanding the fundamental truth that only life can create conditions for life.

The Building Revolution Next we’ll need to build models of the future we seek — now. My organization, the International Living Future Institute, has been pushing the Living Building Challenge as an essential framework for all new buildings. With the Living Building Challenge we are proving it is possible to build within the carrying capacity of any given ecosystem — building structures that are completely powered by renewable energy, working within the water balance of a given site, treating their own waste, and doing so with materials that are non-toxic and local.

The Bullitt Center in Seattle is one such model — a six-story office building completely powered by the sun when averaged over the course of the year, with composting toilets on all six levels.

The Bullitt Center is a symbol of a revolution in modern architecture: bigger than the majority of buildings in the United States, yet free from the burden and legacy of fossil fuels in the country’s least sunny major city. Throughout the world, living schools, parks, homes, offices, and museums are cropping up in a variety of climate zones against various political backdrops. Currently more than 200 of these transformative buildings are taking shape in communities as far flung as New Zealand, China, Mexico, Brazil, and in nearly every U.S. state. If these diverse projects can achieve Living Building Challenge goals, there is no limit to how broadly we can apply these systems. Because we now have the technology to build truly regenerative communities, it is no longer a stretch to imagine the “living” paradigm as the new normal.

The Scale Revolution Another relevant topic in the context of this discussion is something I call the “Boundary of Disconnect.” I define the Boundary of Disconnect as any system’s metaphysical and tactile boundary at which the individual (or any species or colony of species) is no longer able to connect or relate to the totality of the system itself. This concept is all about scale, and how we as humans should best live and relate to each other within the communities we build. In our current model of the built environment, we typically develop without heeding scale, or build slavishly to the scale of the automobile. We binge on materials, energy, and water, climbing higher and sprawling farther without considering the natural, social, or emotional consequences. But if we were smarter about the appropriate scales for our systems — building, agriculture, transportation — we would minimize problems that arise from disconnectedness. As the writer Richard Louv put it: When density is disproportionate to nature and we are disconnected from our earthly surroundings, we succumb to “nature deficit disorder.” When it comes to scale, a powerful litmus test for any community is its ability to support and nurture children.

Child-centered planning would focus on our most precious and delicate citizens. It would heed the advice of Enrique Peñalosa, a former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, who wrote, “Children are a kind of indicator species. If we can build a successful city for children, we will have a successful city for all people.”

The good news is that a child-centered city is not simply generous; it’s practical. And what nurtures small people often helps our elders as well. For starters (this is a very incomplete list) we would: Involve children in local food production. Sprinkle bike racks, sport courts, public art, and natural playgrounds throughout the city. Eliminate poisonous substances from the built environment. Design sheltered public waiting areas. Install swings designed for all ages across the metropolis. Create “sound parks” powered by fountains, wind chimes, drums, and livemusic performances that amplify the music of nature. Scatter courtyards linked to public spaces that offer acoustic and visual privacy from the street. Get rid of most advertising.

Even if more and more people are moving to cities, we can design streets, sidewalks, and pathways at a scale that is safe and pleasant when experienced by someone under four feet tall rather than designing everything around the scale of 3000-pound automobiles. We can design neighborhood features that support child development through welcoming natural systems such as flowing water, trees, and a myriad of ways for children to interact with the living world rather than merely being presented with a lifeless concrete jungle.

The Living Community Revolution Ultimately, Living Communities of the future are both scaled to the human dimension and include functioning ecological systems throughout, where greater biodiversity and resilience can occur. Instead of flying cars and moon colonies, Living Communities will be filled with ultra-efficient, nontoxic Living Buildings that generate their own energy onsite using renewable resources, capture and treat their own water, are made of nontoxic sustainably sourced materials, and inspire their inhabitants.

But only if we start imagining and insisting now.

The game-changing success of the Living Building Challenge is proof that Living Communities are feasible within a fabric that supports strong social and cultural networks. As we imagine and then build examples of this new paradigm, it is essential that we do not use our most economically disadvantaged as guinea pigs. Indeed, the human dimension of our cities must be carefully considered as we go forward to overcome the legacy of racial and economic prejudice that has pervaded city planning in the past.

Perhaps in the future, popular books and films will portray how we overcame mind-numbing odds and defeated the seemingly unstoppable Culture of Inevitability, and instead embraced a new vision for the way we will live on the planet — one that puts people and life squarely where they belong: at the heart of our communities.

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Dreamy renovated 1970’s cabin finds its way to the pages of Dwell Magazine.

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50 Year Old Prefabricated Off-Grid Cabin Exterior Repair Net Zero Energy Adaptation Ground mounted solar panels Landscape Additions Dance & Tent Platform

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Kitchen & Dining Pod Living Room Lounge Pod Bedroom Pod Ground Mounted Solar Water Collection & Sand Filter System Beach Rebuilt Stage & Tent Platform Inlet for Boat Anchoring Tidal Pools & Rocks John’s Pass Waterway

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CAMP EVERHAPPY San Juan Islands, Washington

Accessible only by boat, Camp Everhappy is a remote off-grid cabin set in the picturesque San Juan Islands of Washington State.

The cabin was designed by the original owner Hugh Pape, a Boeing engineer, but had fallen into a state of extreme disrepair.

The McLennan Design team worked to restore the cabin and did a variety of interior design improvements including adding a new kitchen and interior fit-out as well as fixing leaks, broken windows and re-energizing the structure.

Camp Everhappy embodies the idea of living lightly on the land as a series of prefabricated structures with bedroom, kitchen / dining, and living room in different pods. Designed to blend in with the landscape rather than as an eye- catching look-at-me beacon, they become quiet figures nestled among the trees, providing serenity for guests. This project is a demonstration that even the smallest of interventions can have transformative potential when paired with regenerative and restorative consideration.

THE BLUE DOOR

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The original aircraft paint job was so robust and now blended into the environment that it was retained as is, and only leaks and broken windows fixed on the exterior. The exception was to paint the front door a soft robin’s egg blue – a nod to the new color scheme inside and to signify a new owner and a new chapter in the camp’s life.

Happily Ever After TEXT BY

Lauren Gallow PHOTOS BY | @KJPHOTOS1022

Kyle Johnson

Getting to the remote islands off Washington State’s northernmost coast is not always smooth sailing. Just ask architect Jason F. McLennan and his wife, artist Tracy McLennan, who in 2019 found themselves stranded on San Juan Island after their century-old wooden cruiser, the Vagabond, started smoking during a family trip. “We got stuck there and were just goofing around one night, looking at property online,” recalls Tracy. “We saw this bizarre, interesting place for sale.”

Having bought and restored several quirky properties in Washington over the years, including a five-story tree house made partly with salvaged ship parts and a 100-year-old barracks with a horse stable that is now his office, Jason was smitten the first time he visited the “pod houses,” as they are affectionately known.

“We fell in love with the potential of the property,” says Jason, who runs McLennan Design on Bainbridge Island and is chief sustainability officer at Perkins & Will.

eating—perched among towering Douglas firs, cedars, and madrones overlooking the Salish Sea. Designed by a Boeing engineer named Hugh Pape in the late 1970s, the pods were prefabricated using aeronautical engineering techniques and airlifted by helicopter onto Pape’s property, where they were finished with modular panels and joined into a single retreat. “He built

True to form, Jason and Tracy took the leap and bought the camp-like retreat in 2020—even though it had no power or running water at the time and is on a secluded island with no ferry service.

The property, part of a development called Camp Everhappy, is one of the more eccentric projects Jason has tackled.

It consists of three prefabricated pods— one each for living, sleeping, and

Architect and sustainability expert Jason F. McLennan and his wife, Tracy, an artist (above), renovated a neglected getaway on a small island off the coast of Washington.

The secluded setting and spectacular views, like the one from the living room (left), make the many challenges they faced in updating the property worth it.

“It’s a magical place,” says Tracy.

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Camp Everhappy is a spectacular location. It’s a place where one is reminded of the greater circle of life and constant ebb and flow, emphasized by the ever changing tides, currents, and wildlife that shared this land long before human structures were ever built.

Orcas, salmon, otters, crabs, and all sorts of life abounds.

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Ground-mounted solar panels were placed in a location to not obstruct scenic views from inside the cabin or when looking from the waters edge; and a composting toilet and water system is located on the property behind the cabins. These interventions focused on the cabin’s water and energy systems to extend the longevity of this special place and maintain the ability to operate off-grid and as low impact as possible. These sensitive improvements allow wildlife and human life to co-habitat and enjoy the beauty and abundance the location offers in a harmonious and non-polluting, non-destructive manner.

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Designed by aviation engineer Hugh Pape in the 1970s, the house comprises a string of elevated hut-like rooms connected by hallways.

Because the island is accessible only by boat or helicopter, the prefab pods were airlifted from a barge onto foundations that Pape had constructed on-site. “It was so well planned and executed that apparently it took the chopper just thirty minutes to drop the pods in,”Steel-framed says Jason. wooden decks (left) can be drawn up with cables to winterize the house. The kitchen (below), designed by Space Theory, features a refrigerator from Smeg. Everything is solar powered, and—thanks to a rainwater catchment system, a well, and a composting toilet—the home is completely off-grid.

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The founder of the Living Building Challenge and his family restore N OV EM B ER/D an ECEM BoffER 2023 grid outpost in the San Juan Islands.

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it like an aircraft,” says Jason. “Nothing can rot. We haven’t repainted the exterior because I don’t know what kind of airplane paint he used—but it’s still going strong.”

The property hadn’t been updated much over the years, save for an A-frame added in the 1990s that contains additional sleeping areas. Jason, Tracy, and their four children set out to bring the camp back to life with the help of local builder Jim Parker and Jason’s “solar guru,” Eric Youngren. The team installed photovoltaics and batteries that power the home and allow it to run off-grid, updated the original rainwater harvesting system, and added new water lines that connect to an underground well. The couple also enlisted a gaggle of high schoolers— friends of their sons, Aidan and Declan— to help haul supplies for a new Space Theory kitchen and a Smeg refrigerator from a barge up to the site.

“The house needed its next steward,” 50

says Jason. “It’s the ultimate recycling project when you can reuse a structure instead of tearing it down.”

In 2006 Jason launched the Living Building Challenge—widely considered the world’s most progressive green building program—and since then he has tirelessly worked to mainstream the concept of “regenerative” buildings that make a net positive impact on the environment. Now, with several family reunions at the camp under their belts, including a few raucous nights by the campfire under the moonlight, the McLennans are learning how a building can be regenerative for a family.

“It forces us close together,” says Jason.

“We have to troubleshoot things together,” agrees Tracy. “The camp asks something of us. It’s hard work to get there, get your supplies up, get it functioning. But that makes it a bit sweeter when you can sit and look out at the water and appreciate how you got there.”

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The cabin is an assembly of three prefabricated pods that are connected through a corridor. Each pod has a glass wall facing the scenic view to the north and a solid wall for privacy to the south. Elevated off the ground and separated by function, every space reveals a new view, scenery, and moment to experience and these qualities were enhanced through the renovation process.

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KITCHEN After almost 50 years of existence, it was time for the kitchen and dining cabin to be renovated since there was no power or running water available and the kitchen was non-functional. The challenge presented was determining what to keep and what to redo. In a remote island location, the logistics and off-grid dynamics added an additional layer of complexity which was addressed by taking stock of the best elements to preserve: the original wood floors, with their warm patina. An all new FSC wood cabinet package was designed and installed on the site to modernize the kitchen along with a new midcentury dining set. After a fresh coat of warm white paint, cabinets by “space theory” the renovated space becomes an inviting and warm abode for the family to call their “home away from home”.

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The interior design of the cabins was a lesson in restraint.

Inspired by the Japanese Wabi-Sabi approach, where imperfections are welcome, this project accepts the character and wear of an almost half a century old structure and sought ways to curate new elements that complement the existing structure and detail. New pieces added and renovations to the building were done with the aesthetics and principles of asymmetry, durability, simplicity, modesty, intimacy, and an appreciation of both natural objects and the forces of nature.

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HISTORY

Sometimes the smallest projects can have transformative impact to capture imagination, regardless of scale. An almost fifty year old cabin, left nearly abandoned, can be restored with a regenerative and stewardship minded approach and apply principles promoting thoughtful living. From a prefabricated beginning in the 1970’s and left untouched until renovations in 2020 by McLennan Design, the recently renovated cabin attracted international coverage in Dwell, inspiring thousands with this case study of sensitive restoration.

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"Galaxy" – Auroville Masterplan auroville.org

Dawn Fire, Auroville’s birthday celebration auroville.org

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by Kishore Kandasamy

AurovilleWay No styles, no templates – but plenty to learn from the architecture found in this experimental utopian society in southeast India.

© Dharmesh Jadeja/Dustudio

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reaking ground in 1968 off the east coast of the state of Tamil Nadu, India is an international spiritual community known as Auroville. Developed as an autonomous community independent of India's government, the experimental township was formed around the notion of a community beholden to no specific nation, economy, or infrastructure system. Rather, all citizens are free inhabitants ascribing to a single authority, that of the 'supreme truth'. With a masterplan formed around the image of a spiral galaxy, the community consists of six zones with Matrimandir (the sun) at the center of it all, and Rammed earth architecture ascribes to the path of the spiritual leader Sri Aurobindo.

Striving to be a sustainable utopian society, innovation and experimentation are highly encouraged. Almost any idea related to sustainability is being tried in Auroville, whether it be regenerative forestry, socially just labor systems, or entirely new expressions of architecture. While the society strives for modernity, ancient building techniques can be found at every turn, often directly adjacent to thoroughly modern explorations.

To many, this juxtaposition may make the architecture of Auroville appear confusing or disorienting. Nonetheless, as its citizens pursue a "higher self" and explore their individuality, so does the township's architecture. No two buildings are the same, nor do they operate the same way.

While the original community may have been started in the pursuit of modern architecture, today the focus lies more on the exploration of spirituality and sustainability within architecture. One could describe the township as an amalgamation of global influences constructed with local expression. Numerous architecture firms live and practice within Auroville, exploring ideas on both the micro and macro scales.

Dustudio, a notable Indian architecture practice, is a pioneer of rammed earth techniques. Striving to resurrect the ancient knowledge of rammed earth buildings, the studio's work is highly driven by context, with building forms created from the very ground upon which they sit. Sacred Groves, a similarly-minded practice, embraces non-toxic building techniques as their central ethos, up-cycling building materials and incorporating waste generated by other industries into their construction process. Their work pushes the boundaries of vernacular design, with promising results. Auroville Earth Institute is a non-profit organization specializing in earthen building technologies. Based on well-researched and experimented construction techniques, they have invented their own tools that encourage cost-effective and sustainable construction. These are just a few examples of the innovative work going on in Auroville, illustrating the many lessons hidden inside each building within this truly experimental community.

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THE REGENERATIVE MATERIALS MOVEMENT

(Joanna Jenkins)

PROJECT HAIL MARY | Andy Weir

(Stephen Gibson)

Compilation by the International Living Future Institute – Collection of essays centered on building materials and their relationship with Equity, Health, Climate, and the Environment.

Set in the near future, this sci-fi novel is about a middle school science teacher who wakes up from a coma with amnesia. He gradually remembers that he is on a suicide mission whose goal is nothing less than saving humanity.

A NEW GARDEN ETHIC | Benjamin Vogt

(Josh Fisher)

Cultivating Defiant Compassion for an Uncertain Future – In a world in which everything is designed, regulated, and commodified we need wildness, organicness, and beauty,

SAPIENS | Yuval Noah Harari

(Reza Takallouie)

Provides a concise and insightful overview of human history, covering pivotal revolutions and cultural shifts that have shaped our species from ancient times to the present day.

SWIM HOME TO THE VANISHED | Brendan Shay Basham (Kishore Kandasamy)

Beautifully explores the grief of a man who lost his brother - Its resonance with Diné history and the removal of Navajo natives from their land gives the novel a greater meaning.

BEWILDERMENT | Richard Powers

(Galen Carlson)

ZUGUNRUHE | Jason F. McLennan

(Aayushi Mody)

Struggling to connect with his nine-year-old son who is diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, astrobiologist Theo Byrne begins an experimental journey, taking his son into the woods to explore the natural world together. A beautiful investigation into the power of biophilia to reconnect ourselves with the land, with family, and with the cosmos.

"Zugunruhe" says the restlessness one feels, like the birds before a migration, is a nudge to change course for Earth's sake. This book provides practical life tips and theoretical insights for the emerging "green warriors". It reminds us that as a community of "green warriors" we can transform our uncomfortable knowledge and uneasiness to motivation our actions and migrate towards a more sustainable future.

THE FOUR PIVOTS: REIMAGINING JUSTICE, REIMAGINING OURSELVES | Shawn A. Ginwright, PHD (Phaedra Svec)

Makes the case that four simple pivots can have a profound impact first on healing and then to open a world of new possibilities for justice.

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wonderful soul Sustainability Activist ibrahim abdul-matin

Photo by Danielle Barnum

1954 - 2023

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world lost a wonderful soul last year and a friend to sustainability and green building. I first met ibrahim abdul-matin* when I enlisted him as a keynote speaker at our annual sustainability event – Living Future, being held in Portland, Oregon in 2011. Living Future had at that time become the most transformative green building event in the industry, but it wasn’t particularly diverse. We deliberately went seeking a speaker that brought a different community to our event. ibrahim had recently published his book – Green Deen: What Islam Teaches about Protecting the Planet, and brought his perspective not only as a Black American and scholar, but as a practicing Muslim. In the book, he explains the long-standing connections between Islamic teachings and environmental stewardship – important for people in this country to understand.

Upon meeting, it took about 5 minutes for us to become friends and recognize each other as kindred spirits. ibrahim gave a powerful talk, and after seeing the impact on our audience for being open to different ways of thinking and being, I asked him to join our board of directors. He agreed without hesitation, and for the next decade he and I would get together 3-4 times a year with phone conversations in-between. He was a joyous person to be around, and I thoroughly enjoyed our camaradarie and shared passions. I remember in particular some challenging conversations we had after the murder of George Floyd in 2020 and the sudden focus on Black Lives Matter. ibrahim was clear and compassionate about his frustrations and fears in a country he cared for but didn’t always care for him.

Then suddenly I learned he was sick. I got a call from the chair of the ILFI board at the time and it didn’t seem real. He was only in his mid-forties. Shortly thereafter, ibrahim sent me a several page handwritten letter that he wrote to me in his final month as a form of goodbye – writing eloquently about our friendship and what it meant to him. I must confess I had a hard time reading it. It reminds me today how fragile life is and how important it is to appreciate those whose lives we touch and come into contact with even for fleeting moments. ibrahim worked hard to promote sustainability in New York and around the country. He cared for things greater than himself – motivated by his family and his faith and love for humanity. He believed that the earth was a Mosque. Sacred and worth our devotion and dedication. I was lucky to have known him.

My dear friend – you will be missed.

-

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Jason F. McLennan

* ibrahim preferred to have his name in lower case

"To really live as though everything is connected, we need to examine how our actions are affecting the land, the sea, and the people and animals who live on earth."

– ibrahim abdul-matin

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2023 Planet Positive Awards Workplace Corporate Headquarters

Winner Perkins&Will/McLennan Design HMTX World Headquarters Norwalk, Connecticut METROPOLIS’s Planet Positive Awards recognizes the most creative projects and products from around the world that benefit people and planet, as well as firms and professionals leading the way to a better built environment. Judged by four expert juries across project types and product categories, the selected winners and honorable mentions represent the highest achievements today in design that addresses climate change, ecosystem health, human health, and equity.

Our team is deeply honored to announce that the HMTX Global Headquarters has been selected as the Workplace Corporate Headquarters winner for the 2023 Planet Positive Awards. We are so proud of this beautiful project that shows you can balance modern design with a deeply biophilic and regenerative framework.

Affectionately referred to as “The House Upon The Hill”, the project has quickly become a staple of the business and artist communities in Connecticut, hosting weekly events that welcome innovators, collaborators, and out-of-the-box thinkers to explore products and ideas that promote greater health and wellbeing for all.

In addition to HMTX’s achievements, we're thrilled to share that the ASHRAE Net Zero Headquarters in Atlanta, GA also received an Honorable Mention within the Workplace category.

Designed in collaboration with Houser Walker Architecture, this project was a deep green retrofit of an outdated 1970s office building, transforming the old nondescript structure into a world-class, ultra-efficient new home for the organization that sets efficiency standards around the globe.

Learn more about both of these exciting projects and see the full list of exemplary winners and honorees at https://metropolismag.com/awards/planet-positive/

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Lichen Collection

Designed by Jason F. McLennan, the founder of the Living Product Challenge, and his team at McLennan Design, Mohawk Group is proud to introduce the Lichen Collection, the first floor covering to achieve Living Product Challenge Petal Certification. Inspired by assemblages of multi-hued, multi-textured lichens and their regenerative role in our ecosystem, the Lichen Collection is on the path to give more resources back to the environment than it uses during its entire life cycle.

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Work in progress

the

RENTON SHOP The First Mass Timber, Living Energy Petal Designed Building for King County

Designed by McLennan Design in collaboration with HDR Architects Currently under construction and expected to open in late 2024 / early 2025, the new King County Central Maintenance and Operations Facility, or “Renton Shop”, is the first mass timber, Living Energy Petal Designed Building for King County! The project transforms a parking lot into a new facility with improved function and space for shop and maintenance, operations and administrative office area, and new community meeting spaces. The new facility will serve all of Central King County and will be the new headquarters and home for the County Parks Department serving Renton and beyond.

Designed in collaboration with HDR, the layout of Renton Shop was determined by a wide variety of constraints, site easements, a complex program that fully utilizes the site, the challenge to accommodate all sorts of County vehicles and operations machinery, and the desire to balance the need for public access and new space for County Department headquarters. Creating a continuous green buffer for privacy, biophilia, and water management was critical, as was orienting the buildings to maximize solar access, resulting in the final design of three separate buildings, each catered to their specific needs.

Construction progress continues apace, with the erection of the mass timber structure for the Administration building along the southern edge of the site, and the pouring of concrete slabs-on-grade for the more utilitarian shop buildings to the north. Already, the special views of Mount Rainier from the Admin building are emerging, connecting people to the beloved regional landmark. Stay tuned for further progress on this exciting project that hopes to set a new standard for King County public projects!

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Serpentine landscape trail along stormwater bioswale

Solar hallway with rammed earth thermal mass wall

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Beauty & Inspiration

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Featured Artist Cory Bennett Anderson In honor of Black History Month, we are recognizing an artist who is a close friend to our studio, Cory Bennett Anderson. He and Josh Fisher, our Associate and Director of Visualization, frequently collaborate on public murals and art projects and have a few commissioned pieces on display in our Bainbridge Island studio. The pieces shared in this issue are work Cory has created that celebrate historic, cultural, and impactful personalities that have inspired generations!

The Poulsbo, Washington based artist describes his work as neo-pop, fusing together pop-themes, iconic images, and neo-expressionist techniques to reflect historic and current culture.

Quincy Jones

Rosa Parks

Muhammad Ali

An active muralist and community-based artist, Anderson displays a unique combination of urban street style with the use of found media and finds an endless supply of complex and relevant subject matter. Each painting evoking a sense of reverence, optimism, and inspiration.

His work has been shown across North America and exhibitions include showings at Miami Art Basel, BIMA, the Northwest African American Museum, and more. He recently was a keynote speaker at the Congressional Institute National Art Competition by invitation from Washington State Representative Derek Kilmer.

Artist with portrait of Charles Bradley

– by Josh Fisher Learn more about Cory Bennett Anderson at artbycbennett.com Selma Tribute

Martin Luther King, Jr.

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ABOUT MCLENNAN DESIGN Founded in 2013 by global sustainability leader and green design pioneer Jason F. McLennan and joined by partner Dale Duncan, the firm dedicates its practice to the creation of living buildings, net-zero, and regenerative projects all over the world.

As the founder and creator of many of the building industry’s leading programs including the Living Building Challenge and its related programs, McLennan and his design team bring substantial knowledge and unmatched expertise to the A/E industry. The firm’s diverse and interdisciplinary set of services makes for a culture of holistic solutions and big picture thinking.

In July 2022, McLennan Design merged with global architecture and design firm Perkins&Will to accelerate and scale up decarbonization. One of the world’s leading multi-disciplinary regenerative design practices, McLennan Design focuses on deep green outcomes in the fields of architecture, planning, consulting, and product design. The firm uses an ecological perspective to drive design creativity and innovation, reimagining and redesigning for positive environmental and social impact.

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ABOUT JASON F. MCLENNAN Jason F. McLennan is considered one of the world’s most influential individuals in the field of architecture and green building movement today, Jason is a highly sought out designer, consultant and thought leader. The recipient of the prestigious Buckminster Fuller Prize, the planet’s top prize for socially responsible design, he has been called the Steve Jobs of the green building industry, and a World Changer

by GreenBiz magazine. In 2016, Jason was selected as the National Award of Excellence winner for Engineering News Record - one of the only individuals in the architecture profession to have won the award in its 58-year history.

McLennan is the creator of the Living Building Challenge – the most stringent and progressive green building program in existence, as well as a primary author of the WELL Building Standard. He is the author of seven books on Sustainability and Design used by thousands of practitioners each year, including The Philosophy of Sustainable Design. McLennan is both an Ashoka Fellow and Senior Fellow of the Design Future’s Council.

Jason serves as the Chief Sustainability Officer at Perkins&Will and is the Managing Principal at McLennan Design.

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Winter Morning

BY JAMES CREWS

When I can no longer say thank you for this new day and the waking into it, for the cold scrape of the kitchen chair and the ticking of the space heater glowing orange as it warms the floor near my feet, I know it’s because I’ve been fooled again by the selfish, unruly man who lives in me and believes he deserves only safety and comfort. But if I pause as I do now, and watch the streetlights outside flashing off one by one like old men blinking their cloudy eyes, if I listen to my tired neighbors slamming car doors hard against the morning and see the steaming coffee in their mugs kissing chapped lips as they sip and exhale each of their worries white into the icy air around their faces—then I can remember this one life is a gift each of us was handed and told to open: Untie the bow and tear off the paper, look inside and be grateful for whatever you find even if it is only the scent of a tangerine that lingers on the fingers long after you’ve finished peeling it.

1580 Fort Ward Hill Road Bainbridge Island, Washington 98110 perkinswill.com/studio/bainbridge-island 1475 Walnut Street Kansas City, MO 64106 perkinswill.com/studio/kansas-city

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