SIM VAN DER RYN
1935 - 2024
A Quarterly Journal from McLennan Design. Rediscovering our relationship to the natural world. Volume 7 Issue 1
Green Giant
Every movement of substance needs to document its history and honor its champions. I didn’t set out to do that purposefully with the creation of Love + Regeneration – but it is one of its core purposes now, as we begin to lose many of our green building pioneers. Its important to remember upon whose shoulders we’ve all stood upon as we fight to make our buildings better and our impact smaller. This issue is dedicated to the life and contributions of Sim Van Der Ryn – his incredible legacy of ideas and design towards an Ecological Paradigm.
Within the issue are a variety of explorations. A short article I wrote about the culture of consumerism, which continues to be the core problem with our society and its global draw down of ecological health. A focus on the Red List – pioneered by the Living Future Institute and taken up as a standard by a growing group of manufacturers (this article is a reprint from Trim Tab magazine).
There is a wonderful Q&A with one of our favorite clients – Eddie Opler from World’s Finest Chocolates – that we think people will enjoy seeing, which is an expansion of an article that appeared in Perkins&Will’s CURRENTs magazine that was just recently released. Tucked within these pages are other fun elements – poetry, art, and musing from our staff on a few of their favorite buildings from around the world.
The northern hemisphere is cold right now – and feels particularly harsh these days. Hopefully this focus on Love… and Regeneration will warm you all a little bit.
- Jason Jason F. McLennan Founder, Living Building Challenge Principal, McLennan Design Chief Sustainability Officer, Perkins&Will
Painting by Sim Van Der Ryn
Jason F. McLennan
McLennan
Snow falling on Bainbridge
By Jason F. McLennan
ITis challenging in the modern age to go through life and not accumulate stuff – especially with kids and a family and the constant pressure to consume and participate in the modern economy of new things. Getting whatever we want has never been easier with Amazon and online retail, and the planet is awash with inexpensive goods made from parts sourced all over the planet. We’ve known for a long time that a big portion of the planet’s environmental problem is owed to the rate and nature of consumption of goods, as per capita pollution, energy and water consumption track by income level and national wealth. The “haves and have-nots” have very different ecological footprints. The richest 1% are responsible for as much carbon pollution as nearly 2/3rds of humanity, according to Oxfam.
Talk about inequality.
So for many of us, the issues surrounding the consumption of goods should be made more clear – and it’s important to understand that having more stuff doesn’t in fact make us happier – but it can in fact hurt all of life on the planet.
SOME KEY THINGS TO CONSIDER ABOUT THE CULT OF CONSUMERISM, FUNDAMENTAL IN
OUR MARKET-DRIVEN SOCIETY
• Most of the goods we consume are designed with planned obsolescence in mind - things are rarely fixed and therefore prematurely end up in landfills.
Our culture puts an emphasis on always having the latest version of something – from fashion to tech - attributing newness and change with beauty, happiness and success.
• We are awash in cheap goods – designed to look and work well for only a short time at the lowest price point possible, encouraging people to make casual or impulse purchases with less consideration and then have to replace them frequently.
• The framework of the global economy has been engineered to perfect the externalization of manufacturing and disposal costs on the environment and the poor, in order to maximize the profits of the few and enable the lowest price points possible for the consumer class.
• The majority of people who make the goods consumed in the first world cannot themselves afford them.
• The introduction of new technologies, chemicals and products into society are mostly done in order to maximize profits for the producer in the short term, while ignoring the long-term consequences and impacts to society and life. This is often done with minimal testing before launch – the opposite of a precautionary approach, which would require extensive testing to ensure safety. Thus, industries are often motivated to sidestep or diminish regulation and responsibility wherever possible.
• There is an incredible mismatch between how things are physically and chemically engineered and their useful lifespan as a product – hence you get products that may only be used for a short time, but take forever to degrade or decompose – think water bottles and most things made of plastic. Durability and degradability do not go hand in hand.
• Incredible marketing, based on a deep understanding of societal mores, cultural dynamics, and personal biases, have worked to convince people that they need things they don’t and that our happiness and success depends on it despite the actual data proving otherwise.
• Nearly a century under this paradigm, has resulted in the world being awash with pollution and waste – in particular plastic waste that is now bioaccumulating within all life on the planet.
Photos by Shutterstock
THE PROBLEM WITH OUR WORLD OF CONSUMPTION IS
SIMULTANEOUSLY ECOLOGICAL, ECONOMIC, PSYCHOLOGICAL, AND CULTURAL.
People’s lives are awash in cheap, ugly goods, filling our closets, garages, storage units and living spaces - wasting our economic and ecological resources. The world is drowning in the waste and detritus of a consumer-driven economy.
Despite all this, simply telling people to buy less and consume less has not been an effective counter message by environmentalists and those tuned into these imbalances. When faced with highly effective siren songs of consumption, much more effective counter-consumption stories beyond merely “doing without” are required.
One antidote, while far from a total solution, is to refocus our desires and the definition of personal success in our culture – not on the volume of personal assets we have, but rather on their quality and contribution to our personal and aesthetic wellbeing We must refocus on beauty and a less-ismore mentality – with declutter and minimalism as the new vanguards of success.
ART OF CONSUMERISM
Who does not want a simpler life, surrounded by more beauty? To be surrounded by things that last and can be fixed and passed down to future generations? Less to take care of and more to truly enjoy?
Imagine if you embraced an approach where you only purchased things that were truly best in class, beautifully made and beautiful to behold, and stopped buying things otherwise? What if your goal for the year was to remove as many things from your life that you don’t use frequently and replace things only when necessary – and then only with the most durable, well-made and artistic options?
I would propose that we begin adopting a new mantra of consumerism – where we surround ourselves only with things of beauty, or otherwise forgo them. I call this attitude Artful Consumerism. It is not a solution for all the issues outlined in this article – but if adopted by those that consume the most, it would be transformative.
THE STEPS OF ARTFUL CONSUMERISM
STEP ONE: THE PURGE
Go through the things in your life that you own. What things do you truly use and truly love? Which things do you have but rarely ( or never) use. Especially consider if you have a storage unit, store things in your garage, attic, or basement. Make a plan and set aside time to rid yourself of everything not on your frequent use and truly love list. Don’t throw things in the landfill!! Donate to goodwill, hold yard sales, and give things to people that need it. A goal should be that you have no storage areas holding things you don’t use and love. It could even save you a great deal of money.
STEP TWO: THE PHILOSOPHY
Adopt a new mantra of curated consumerism. As opportunities come up to acquire new things, pause before hitting the purchase button. Ask the following questions;
A) Do I really need this?
B) Will I really use this and for how long?
C) Can I just borrow it somewhere?
D) Can I get it second hand or as an antique?
E) Can I make it? And then only once past this stage, ask –“is this the most beautiful and durable version of the item I could buy? Is it made locally? Is it repairable?”
If people are honest with themselves, they would quickly see that most things we acquire are not things we really need in our lives, and many of the things we acquire we only use for short periods of time before they no longer work or satisfy initial cravings. We should stop buying them.
You might think that only buying the best of something is a statement of privilege – and to a degree that is correct, as people without many resources simply don’t have the funds to buy quality. However, keep in mind that its not the poorest among us that have the biggest environmental footprint – it’s the wealthy, buying at high volume. This is not just a strategy for the rich! Most people don’t realize how much they spend on a yearly basis on all the dozens of things they buy and accumulate. Buying significantly less stuff saves considerable resources that can be deployed in different ways – especially on things that are more durable and carry lower long term costs.
STEP THREE: RETHINK ECONOMICS
This is not an strategy just for those with money – it is advice for everyone, whether a college student starting their life, a young professional embarking on a new career, a young family with growing needs, retirees on fixed incomes – you name it. It is critical that we break the cycle of economics whereby the things that diminish the natural world are upheld daily by the pattern of our consumer choices. Artful Consumerism is a pattern that breaks the cycle through intentionality - and that results in a better quality of life and personal economics. Buying less and buying better, is about rethinking economics and reexamining what you trade your life energy for. Look for things only that are truly worthy of the time it takes you to make money. Resist impulse buys and adopt an attitude of doing without until you can do with the best, saving your money for what matters. And to be clear – the best of something doesn’t always mean the most expensive. It is amazing what can be found second-hand at vintage stores, antique shops, estate sales, and things made by hand by local artisans and artists.
Eschew labels and pricing based on marketing and “brand” and embrace things made with love, with real materials.
If you are going to buy something – how about a plant? There are always people needing to re-home plants so plants can be found cheaply- they bring multiple benefits and are a good investment.
Art is something that carries very low environmental impact and very high emotional impact, especially if you know the artist or if it relates to a memory or place you love”. Support a friend or family member and surround yourself by their creations rather than plastic decorations and cheap reproductions.
SURROUNDED BY BEAUTY
I take the same attitude to most things in my life –clothing, furniture, art, vehicles, appliances and so forth. As a result, most things in my life have a story and a history. They are things that I plan to use for years where I can. I’m not precious about the things I buy – I use them and use them hard. I am ok with imperfections and wear and I’m not a “collector”– when I buy something I expect to use it for as long as possible because I love it. We ultimately take care of and repair things we care about, and we honor their use and the resources it takes to make things by using them as intended.
There is something magical that grows over time by being surrounded only by a curation of things we love and appreciate. There is something freeing to not be surrounded by things you don’t need as well. There is something good about stepping outside the circle of mindless consumerism and its unintended consequences.
There is only one thing we truly get to curate, and its our own lives – so why not curate a thing of beauty?
A CASE STUDY:
The Beautiful Backpack
Take the case of my beautiful backpack. This is an item that I love dearly and that I have now used for the last decade, every single day. It has travelled with me all over the world. It is beautiful and timeless and people constantly comment on it. It has patina, character and uniqueness. It is well made. Its purchase supported a craftsman and a small business owner rather than a corporation. When it has broken through frequent use, it has been fixed by a cobbler, rather than discarded.
I originally bought this backpack while traveling in Australia. It is a handmade item made by a craftsman in India out of real materials – leather, metal buckles, and cloth lined interior. The bag – when its useful life is over – is biodegradable. I paid only around $100 for this bag. There were cheaper options made from vinyl, plastic, and nylon – but I’d had those in the past and they would snap and break within a year or two and would show their age, becoming less attractive over time. My bag actually gets more beautiful with each passing year!
It is my intention to keep using it for the next decade and hopefully for far more beyond. It is a future heirloom that perhaps my kids will even use after I’m gone. The short term and long term economics of this purchase are remarkable (at around 2 cents per day and going down with every year), yet its impact on my life has been so positive for such a small thing, and its negative impacts on the environment negligible (especially given how long it will continue to last).
DESIGN
Part One
WHY CEOS ARE EMBRACING REGENERATIVE DESIGN WORLD'S FINEST CHOCOLATE
This is an extended interview with Eddie Opel that was featured in Perkins&Will CURRENT Magazine
Eddie Opler World's Finest Chocolate
Regenerative design is a holistic approach to designing buildings, landscapes, cities, and places. It goes beyond the idea of doing less harm to instead make positive environmental impacts. Regenerative design also makes good business sense. To find out how, Jason F. McLennan, chief sustainability officer at Perkins&Will, talked with Eddie Opler, CEO and chairman of World’s Finest Chocolate, who is re-imagining his company’s Chicago factory along regenerative lines. Opler is pursuing Living Building Challenge certification for their projects and pushing their industries, both of which have been in the spotlight for the negative impacts they have on people and the planet, toward greater social and environmental responsibility.
JASON MCLENNAN: Let's talk about World's Finest. Maybe start with the history of the company for the readership.
OPLER, EDDIE: The 85-year-old chocolate company based in Chicago was founded by my grandfather. We're a third generation business, and proud to be that. And you know our history has been based in all different kinds of chocolates from the beginning. But we're most wellknown for the fundraising business in North America that has supported schools and other organizations for the last 75 years. So that piece of our business was built up starting in the late 1940s.
JM: Tell our readers, what do you make specifically?
EO: We make all kinds of chocolate products but largely focused on the bars and chocolate covered almonds, nuts and things like that. As you know our goals always been to provide a high-quality product into our markets and to do it at an affordable price. But people have seemed to love it. And a big part of our sustainability at world's finest and being around for a long time is just creating that quality product at a relatively low cost that everyone can enjoy.
JM: When did you take over the reins at the business?
EO: I took over in 2002 from my dad, who had been there 48 years, and my grandfather, who had been there from the very beginning, obviously, but he lived until he was almost 99 and ran the business officially till he was 92.
JM: Let's talk about the mission, because you're pretty darn unique, especially in your sector where you have a mission and it's not just to sell delightful chocolate. Can you expand on that a bit more?
EO: Over time we've evolved from being sort of multifaceted company to really being focused in on trying to have an impact on kids and families across the country – through fundraising efforts largely in schools, but with other groups as well. It’s kind of a unique chocolate business model that revolved around that over time, working with three to four million families a year who sell our product to raise money to do the things that they want to do, whether it's to enhance a computer lab within a school or to build a playground. And to help really support the school systems who aren't able to fully fund those special and important activities to enhance kids’ lives across the board. But it's evolved to something where we support kids of all demographics, all backgrounds. And by doing that, I feel like we're really having a tremendous impact to touch kids lives in ways that are not just the fundraiser itself – which can be a first venture into entrepreneurship, which we think of as a real learning activity to have to ask someone for something. Isn’t that a great skill set to build for all kids? But it's easy when it's done with a one- or two- or three-dollar chocolate product that most people enjoy so they don't get a lot of nos. That's a nice thing about our product – it’s well known across the country and in Canada and Mexico as well. I know you being Canadian had a chance to maybe see some of those growing up in Sudbury.
JM: Yeah, I know. In fact, I’m pretty sure that i did sell your chocolates as a kid. And what's interesting is that it's the taste of the almonds that brought me back to those days – like, oh, wait a minute, I’ve had this before! – because I think you've had the same recipe for a long time.
World's Finest Chocolate
McLennan Design | Perkins&Will Bainbridge Island Rendering
“I don’t want to look back and know that I built a new factory in the old way. Why not look at this much more holistically now? I want to hold a beacon of hope out there. It’s not easy to make these decisions, but it’s the right thing to do.”
– Eddie Opler
EO: Absolutely. We've had the same recipe from the late 40s, and (here’s a fun story),my grandfather apparently sold chocolate to anyone and everyone he could in all kinds of ways, but he did provide a higher quality product to his friends and neighbors at the holidays each year –and he called that the World's Finest Chocolate. And then eventually, our company name became World's Finest Chocolate around 1960. Apparently, he didn't really think a whole lot about – it was just basically lowest cost, but peoplewere learning more and more about chocolate in those days. And then World's Finest emerged. They fully stamped that quality into it in the late 40s. Kind of fun.
JM: Yeah, that's very cool. It's wonderful that you and I are working together and it's something that did figure into my childhood too.
EO: Yeah. Chocolate covered almonds. Extremely popular in Canada and we do have our own special way of doing them that makes them taste just that much better, I think, than everybody else's.
JM: In addition to schools, I’ve seen fundraisers through some retail outlets. I've of course ran into your chocolates at Ace Hardware and I think at other places perhaps.
EO: Yeah, that's been a fun new venture in the last 8 or 10 years. We've begun to partner with large and small retailers across the country to help raise money for their own philanthropies to motivate their employee groups. So places like Ace Hardware, Dollar General, Family Dollar, and others. Many others sell them to help raise money, and it's fun to see. We remit checks back to them after they've raised the money and it's fun to just see them raise, you know, millions of dollars for their own philanthropies, which are both youth based but also adult based charities.
JM: That's awesome.
It's fantastic to be a part of that. We've had a chance to raise over $4.6 billion now.
EO: But for me, the impact really comes down to the impact we can have, each year, on three to four million children. There just aren't many businesses that have that opportunity and it's a kind of an honor for me to steward that forward and see how we can exted that out and take it from 3-4 million, to 5 to 6 million, 8 to 10 million! And that's part of the fun of this project, actually, which I know we will get to in our discussions – but really, for me the idea of sharing what we're thinking about and what we're working on to change thinking around how manufacturing is done and being able to share that in a very public way with the population in the US and Canada, and hopefully even into Mexico.
JM: Well, so with all of this, why is chocolate such a good tool for all this fundraising? There are other sweets in the world, but nothing quite like chocolate. Why do you think that is? I want to hear your opinion of it.
EO: Well, you know, I think I’ve run into one person in my 30 years of working and maybe longer my whole life who doesn't like chocolate. As a rule, I just don't think there's anything else like that out there. And so, for us, it makes it easier to raise money when you're selling something this is just universally loved, and by doing that it makes it easy, easy to raise money because we can deliver it at a low cost in our business. Not every company can do that, but we do because we are very efficient manufacturer, first and foremost, and delivering quality at a low cost is something that people don't really think of in the fundraising world. And mostly it's a great value, so it makes it really something that's open to everyone to use versus communities that already have disposable income. Yeah, money is tricky. But everyone has a dollar or two dollars, especially for something they're going to buy, you know, a few times a week. Anyway, most people do, believe it or not, eat chocolate. Many people eat chocolate daily, so this is just giving them another quality source for it.
JM: So, let's shift gears a little bit. What got you interested? You've already been focused on doing good in the world. But what got you interested in sustainability, from your supply chain now to your future factory?
EO: Great question. Nature has always been a big part of my life and obviously as we've watched the effects and impact of climate change, it has been something that's been on my mind as an adult and something that I certainly try to think about in my personal life. My kids growing up around me have made certain that that's front and center as something that should be thought of across the board, not just individually, but where you can impact more. But I will say this, we have not been a perfect steward and everything that we have done, we are trying to do more. We want to evolve into a company that takes advantage of some of the wonderful technologies that are being developed and for me, I guess, as one ages they start to think about things a little bit more broadly and want to connect the dots between the impact that we can have and as I mentioned the three to four million kids a year working with us. And, why not share that?
EO: I thought the message could come from us. As we think about the future, we had been thinking about that as it relates to cocoa and other things. But really, as our company has evolved into a sustainable position (and I don't mean that in the sustainable sense of green sustainability, but rather as a solid, strong healthy business) it felt that as we think about the next generation of world's finest chocolate that we should have this top of mind. And I just know how fortunate I was to have places to go. And with my family and parents, nature was always front and center, and I guess it became acutely real during the pandemic when I used the ability to be close to nature to really destress. The idea that our natural situation is devolving around us really hit home during that time for me, as it was such a key outlet for me, and I want to make sure that we can share that with future generations. That really just became a key mission for me – not just something that I did in my personal life, but something that I wanted to share with our employees. Share with our many customers and millions of kids, it felt like we could have a greater impact than even just in our own business that way.
JM: What are some of the things that you are trying to overcome, in your industry? Obviously, you have to ship product you package. What are some of the special things that you are looking at?
EO: It's a full start-to-finish supply chain question mark. Obviously, we're shipping a physical product. We're making a physical product, so there are certain challenges built into that. Then after doing a study – with your team Jason, and those experts that you brought to bear – we were able to understand a lot more of our carbon footprint components. And we actually were surprised to learn that about 90% of that footprint happens before it ever gets to our factory, with the growing conditions mainly on cocoa, but also as it relates to dairy and milk, and sugar as well in terms of deforestation that is contributing to climate change. So those learnings have helped focus us on trying to reduce our carbon footprint impact and to figure ways to build it into our business model going forward. Not an easy challenge, I’ll say, to bite all of that off. I assumed wrongly that just our factory footprint would be the largest – that along with distribution of our product both in inbound and outbound shipping. So we've been able to look at what we can do across the board and it's daunting. And doing it together with you, to make that commitment a special thing for our employees and others, we want to be able to share that new practices with others in the future.
JM: Why are you working with us and how did that happen?
EO: So just to bring it back, when we met about two years ago now, I happened to be at a at an arts center in in Jackson, WY, where you were speaking. I knew very little about what you were going to be speaking about that night, but was very inspired to have met you and hear your words on thinking about regeneration as a possibility. And I really connected those dots immediately to our business and thinking about the future. Our factory is in Chicago, and I began thinking about how we could build something that would be really special for employees and for our community. I wanted it to be a holistic view of regeneration and of sustainability. – beyond just a building structure or utilizing renewable energy. The holistic view that relates to the Living Building Challenge is really about thinking beyond and not punishing people for how things have evolved. But really trying to work towards how we bring special things into the world to really regenerate and set an example. I don't think I could sleep for a couple days after hearing you talk about those ideas. I was just so excited to think about the impact we could have, and your skill set – after you gave me many books to read and articles to read (I did plow through those, I promise)–and your expertise, even before understanding the creativity that you use with your team at McLennan Design and Perkins&Will. It has been very fun to think about creatively.
That first time hearing you – it just unlocked an energy for me and made it clear in terms of “now is the time”. Now is the time – let's not wait if we can!
JM: That’s very lovely.
EO: Let's not wait on the future. I couldn't have been more excited than after hearing you speak and then getting a chance to chat with you afterwards and build our friendship and good understanding of what each other does over the last two years. It has been a lot of fun and certainly inspiring for me as I think forward into our business.
JM: It has been fun. So when we're done and we’ve built this incredible new factory for you – and not just a factory, we should also mention that it will also be the place for your employees, your office, but even more, will also be a place for people to come and a museum and an experience. A food experience and educational experience. What will people in your mind's eye see and feel when they come to your future home that we design together?
EO: I’ve always been very proud of our existing facility – that I was lucky enough that my dad and grandfather built in Chicago. But it is indeed just a very large brick building, and for me this idea of blending nature into a manufacturing facility is a concept I’d never even thought about. Even though I’m someone who spends tons of time in nature and lots of different ways, I don't think our employees will even fully understand the impact that will have. And you taught me the word biophilic. I'd never heard that term before. But I can just envision nature imbuing into our workforce as they drive and walk in, and that connection being a huge impact as they are able to work and have nature around them during their time where they can take a break, sit out at lunch, look out onto nature actually from the insides of a manufacturing facility! This is an important part of what we're thinking through and how to do that and create a comfortable space for people to unwind and collaborate and work together as a whole new line of thinking. I thought of this before, but never to this level in any way, shape or form, and then to have this experience that we are designing and thinking about being an educational experience connecting to both young people and adults in a meaningful way, not just in amusement way, but a really incredible platform for education of global supply chain, which has its challenges from unsustainability built into it. I mean, we work with product and goods coming from west Africa and from all around the United States. Packaging, how it is made, how we could think about that in the future as well as distribution – a full supply chain of a product helping people understand what it takes to manufacture a product and to manufacture it in the right way. And to do that by both building the culture for our employees that right way, but also, I’m thinking about it at our use of energy in a new and different way realizing and utilizing the water process. You know, how we handle water are all ways that can be taught to others, along with how we automate. In the STEM tradition – robotics and automation, electrical engineering – these are things that I view this facility integrating, and combining that with chocolate I think will provide something that people are going to flock to – whether it's schools, or people driving by the Chicago area. Taking advantage of learning that, and also our ability to communicate directly with four million young people a year to really share this amazing product, which is chocolate. And to do it in the right way and just show them the challenges of crafting and creating a product from scratch is really an unusual proposition to be able to share. And I think with chocolate being something that everyone loves, being able to see the factory and see how the work is done – is that something that so many people probably have? No, hardly anyone gets that view in the world. And I think that's going to be a very special thing to share, hopefully with millions and millions of people.
JM: It's super exciting. Let me ask you a kind of big, heavy, profound question at the end. What do you think the future holds for humankind's relationship with the natural world?
EO: Jason, this sounds like a good question for you, who've been probably thinking about this a lot. I think it's a scary time from that standpoint, but I do I think one of the things that was so energizing for me was to think about not just new things, but how to regenerate areas and communities. Utilizing this project to revitalize communities is, to me, a wonderfully positive thing. In manufacturing, the new and better ways of doing things are not necessarily the right way. But new and better ways to share nature as a blended concept, I think the more people spend time in nature, the more they want to not let it go away. And I know for me, again coming out of pandemic, I'd say that my ability to go out and do things in nature was what helped me through that very difficult and challenging time for everybody in business. So I’m positive when I think about this, and it is daunting when you think about trying to spread that to the whole world, but you’ve got to start somewhere. And I don't want to look back and say I built a new factory in the old way of doing things, even if it could be a good, you know, factory for making chocolate. Why not look at this much more holistically now? I think the more people that you can touch, Jason, with your knowledge and spread that, the better. It certainly hit me and I just happen to be someone who has the possibility of impacting millions of people every year. Leveraging that knowledge across this platform is what's excited me and I think part of what excites you as well, as you try to improve the world – and that is it is daunting but it's exciting to think that it's more and more possible as we plow forward. I’m optimistic in the world and in now being able to make a bigger dent on our part at World's Finest Chocolate for me and my future generations of kids, whether they come into our business or not, I want to hold a beacon out there of hope. It's kind of a fun thing to be able to think through. It's not easy to make those decisions, but it's certainly, the right thing to do in my mind.
JM: Well, it's certainly been a delight and an honor to work with you, my friend. And I’m excited to host you here on Bainbridge Island to dig into the next layer of progress together on the design.
EO: Very much looking forward to that. It's fun – I’ve never really had a big architectural process to work on before, so this is an exciting time. You dole out those new feelings of creativity, sometimes week to week, and we begin to crave it. It's a fun thing, and to know that we're doing it in an exciting and new way is super special.
JM: Thank you Eddie.
“I’m optimistic in the world and in now being able to make a bigger dent on our part at World's Finest Chocolate for me and my future generations of kids, whether they come into our business or not, I want to hold a beacon out there of hope.”
– Eddie Opler
“Long before sustainability became the buzzword du jour, there was Sim Van der Ryn, the intrepid pioneer of the eco-frontier.”
— New York Times
SIM VAN DER RYN
1935 - 2024
Philosopher
Architect
Author Artist
Content courtesy the Sim Van Der Ryn website.
a conversation between Jason & Sim
The architect Sim Van der Ryn in Berkeley, Calif., in the early 1980s. “As Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem were to the women’s movement,” a 2005 profile in The New York Times observed, “so Mr. Van der Ryn has been to green design.”Credit...Anne T. Kent California Room/Marin County Free Library
Sim Van Der Ryn
A Dedication 1935-2024
Sim was a magical human being to me and someone I greatly admired. His loss in 2024 was palpable to many of us. Few people have done as much in the United States to launch and grow the green building movement in North America and he was a giant in our industry.
I first learned of Sim when I started volunteering at the Solar Information Center at the University of Oregon as a student in the early 1990s. Our small but innovative organization was filled with books – including several of his – and pioneering green professors like John Reynolds, G.Z. Brown and Chuck Rusch in our program spoke of Sim often with admiration. I started reading his books, and they became big influences on my thinking. The Integral Urban House blew my mind at that formative stage in my career and got me eventually dreaming about Living Buildings. Here was a concept for a house that did everything – collected water, treated waste, provided energy – it was an early blueprint for the Living Building Challenge. His book “the Toilet Papers” was a favorite and it opened my eyes to challenging conventional thinking about waste and infrastructure. The fact that I live in a house with composting toilets is likely due to Sim more than anyone.
I first got to meet him when he visited the University of Oregon to give a lecture that we helped organize. Sim was captivating and wise and kind, and he had time to talk to us and share ideas and insights that I never forgot. I remember taking him to lunch and peppering him with questions as a gushing student – something he took in stride and made time for.
I got to see him again a couple years later in my last undergraduate year, when one of my professors, Rob Pena ( who worked with Sim for several years) brought many of us down to Berkeley for a field trip – along the way stopping at places big in the imagination, like Sea Ranch and the Real Goods Center. I was struck by how this architect – who had previously served as the California State Architect under Jerry Brown and designed one of the first major green buildings (the Bateson Building in Sacramento) – gave his time and energy to all of us and felt so passionately about the natural world and the responsibility of the architect to protect it. It definitely emboldened my own thinking and passion and helped light a fire under my career that still burns today. Sim was a rebel and true green warrior. Able to work both within the system and outside it.
Sim and I kept talking and over the next few years started building a friendship that transformed from student/mentor to peers in practice. His books provided a constant expansion to my own thinking – working with Peter Calthorpe on publications on the intersection of urbanity and cities expanded my understanding of sustainability when applied to the urban scale, and my favorite book he co-wrote with Stuart Cowen –Ecological Design – provided a philosophical base for practice.
Sim & Jim, Sim Van der Ryn Collection, Anne T. Kent California Room, Marin County Free Library
In 1971, more than a dozen Berkeley students took an experimental course Mr. Van der Ryn taught on his property in Inverness, Calif., living there in buildings they constructed themselves from salvaged materials.Credit...
Anne T. Kent California Room/Marin County Free Library
You hear sometimes that you shouldn’t meet people you admire because ultimately they let you down. Sim never did. He was always gracious, kind, wise, and insightful when I spent time with him. When I went to work with Bob Berkebile in Kansas City, Sim and I continued to find ways to talk and meet and we’d see each other each year at various green building events. Sim and Bob were contemporaries and both giants in the green building industry, and they had a lot of respect for each other. It was a real privilege to be able to learn from both and see how they each approached sustainable design – and in particular how they inspired people to rise to their potential.
In 2006 when I left Berkebile and launched the Living Building Challenge, Sim was right there with me as an early supporter – publicly supporting the initiative and privately cheering me on. I was honored when he told me I was helping to carry the torch forward for him. In 2009 I brought him up to Vancouver to give a keynote speech to the Living Future Conference attendees and everyone cheered when he ripped off his shirt onstage and put on a Living Building Challenge t-shirt instead of what he was wearing. He was all in. It was classic Sim – and his speech was filled with pain, passion and insights that had attendees cheering and crying both.
In 2012 he then asked me to write the forward to his new book – Design for an Empathic World – I was touched and honored. What a great pairing of words: “design and empathy”. That was Sim in a nutshell – he was more than an architect, he was a philosopher, teacher and artist, expressing his care for all of life through the work he did creating places. Design as an expression of empathy. Doesn’t that say it all?
“I think early Modernism did have a good, optimistic side, but it certainly wasn't derived from nature."
- Sim Van Der Ryn
A couple years later I went and visited him at his house in California and we spent an afternoon together talking about the state of the green building movement and the planet. We walked his property and he showed me things he cared about, including some of his paintings and details in his home. It’s a day I remember very fondly. We talked about family and design and what the green building movement needed next. Sporting his trademark neckerchief, he cut a striking figure with his wizened and thoughtful gaze. We spoke several times after that, but more briefly and I regret that we didn’t find more time while we could.
Sim had been sick for some time before he died and he battled Alzheimer’s in his last few years, always particularly upsetting when it afflicts a mind as beautiful and expansive as his. But our job, as those that follow in his footsteps, is to not forget what he was fighting his entire career for – a world that valued nature and people. A world guided by empathy, not greed. He spoke passionately about how our society was disassembling the organic to re-assemble the mechanical, taking us ultimately towards our demise. He was right and he would be quite upset about recent developments politically and technologically in this country – as it is only through empathy, love, and appreciation for the beauty of the organic that we will set things back on a course that is needed.
Sim passed away in October of 2024 and our entire movement is much poorer for it. I was able to attend his celebration of life virtually and shed more than a few tears for my friend, mentor, colleague and collaborator. This entire issue is dedicated to Sim and his brilliance and compassion.
- Jason F. McLennan
Sim Van der Ryn and students during the “Making a Place in the Country — The Outlaw Builders Studio, Spring ‘72” seminar. Van der Ryn Collection, Anne T. Kent California Room.
CITIZEN’S FIRESIDE HOUSING PROJECT MILL
PRIVATE RESIDENCE
REAL GOODS SOLAR LIVING CENTER « HOPLAND, CALIFORNIA
GREEN GULCH ZEN CENTER
MUIR BEACH, CALIFORNIA
VALLEY, CALIFORNIA
CORTE MADERA, CALIFORNIA
MARIN SOLAR VILLAGE NOVATO, CALIFORNIA
GREGORY BATESON BUILDING
Constructed in 1981 under the visionary guidance of sustainability pioneer and State Architect Sim van der Ryn, the building was a trailblazer in sustainable design for its time. It pioneered features like passive cooling, ventilation and a night flush system, positioning itself as a beacon of innovation in low-energy office spaces, particularly adept at withstanding Sacramento's warm summers.
Design for Life: The Architecture of Sim Van der Ryn surveys the work and principles of Sim Van der Ryn, a world leader in the field of sustainable architecture. Sharing his years of experience as a teacher and using his building designs as examples, the author shows us that buildings are not objects but organisms, and cities are not machines but complex ecosystems.
Design for Life illustrates how Van der Ryn came to see the shifting patterns in nature and how these patterns profoundly affect how people live and work in the structures we build. Van der Ryn explores how architecture has created physical and mental barriers that separate people from the natural world, and how to recover the soul of architecture and reconnect with our natural surroundings. Appointed California State Architect by then-Governor Jerry Brown, Van der Ryn introduced the nation's first energy-efficient government building projects. His vision heralded a Golden Age of ecologically sensitive design and resulted in the adoption of strict energy standards and disability access standards for all state buildings and parks. Van der Ryn has helped inspire architects to see the myriad ways they can apply physical and social ecology to architecture and environmental design.
A classic is back in print! One of the favorite books of 1970s back-to-thelanders, The Toilet Papers is an informative, inspiring, and irreverent look at how people have dealt with their wastes through the centuries. In a historical survey, Van der Ryn provides the basic facts concerning human wastes, and describes safe designs for toilets that reduce water consumption and avert the necessity for expensive and unreliable treatment systems. The Toilet Papers provides do-it-yourself plans for a basic compost privy and a variety of graywater systems.
Sustainable Communities presents four case studies that serve as illustrations for discussions of land use, building design, and service systems, all shaped to promote limited dependence on fossil fuels.
Culture, Architecture and Nature:
An Ecological Design Retrospective: Gathering his most compelling essays and addresses from the last fifty years in one accessible volume, this book looks at the pioneering ideas that underpin Sim Van der Ryn’s ecological design philosophy. It offers a unique decade-by-decade retrospective of the key issues in environmental design, beginning with the most recent years and looking back to the 1960s. With an introductory chapter and further recommended reading for each decade, this book is key reading for any architect or designer practising today, and students will find a wealth of knowledge with which to support their studies. The author’s beautiful illustrations, painted in a corresponding timescale to the chapters, offer further insight into the way he understands the challenges of humanity’s stewardship of our planet.
In Design for an Empathic World Van der Ryn shares his thoughts and experience about the design of our world today. With a focus on the strengths and weaknesses in our approach to the design of our communities, regions, and buildings he looks at promising trends and projects that demonstrate how we can help create a better world for others and ourselves. Architects, urban designers, and students of architecture will all enjoy this beautifully illustrated book drawing on a rich and revered career of a noted leader in their field. The journey described in Design for an Empathic World will help to inspire change and foster the collaboration and thoughtfulness necessary to achieve a more empathic future.
Ecological Design is a landmark volume that helped usher in an exciting new era in green design and sustainability planning. Since its initial publication in 1996, the book has been critically important in sparking dialogue and triggering collaboration across spatial scales and design professions in pursuit of buildings, products, and landscapes with radically decreased environmental impacts. This 10th anniversary edition makes the work available to a new generation of practitioners and thinkers concerned with moving our society onto a more sustainable path.
The Integral Urban House: Self Reliant
Living in the City is a comprehensive guide to achieving a completely sustainable urban lifestyle by creating a mini-ecosystem where residents grow their own fruits and vegetables, raise chickens, rabbits, and fish, recycle 90% of their waste, solar heat their hot water, and use a variety of other alternative technologies—all on a 1/8-acre city lot. Long considered the bible of urban homesteading, this book is the result of four years of living with and refining the systems of the Integral Urban House in Berkeley, California—a collaborative project which combined the collective skills of the members of the Farallones Institute to develop a center for creating and testing experimental, ecologically stable and resource-conserving living systems. With its vision of an intimate connection between the urban habitat and ecological principles The Integral Urban House will inspire and empower people to act within their own communities to create places where they can live more sustainably.
Design often fails because it involves many fields of specialized knowledge that are not adequately communicated and integrated into the design process in a seamless and timely way. The heart of Collaboration is face to face open communication between clients and design teams that integrate knowledge across disciplines. The process begins not with numbers and metrics but through creating shared agreement of aspiration and intention, opportunities and constraints. EcoDesign is a meta-disciplinary approach in which diverse interests and expertise fuse into shared vision which generates collaborative solutions.
ECO-LOGIC DESIGN
Eco-Logic Design grows out of the merger of two worlds shown in the two circles: The Eco-Sphere includes all the living systems of nature that support human life on Earth. The Techno-Sphere includes all the ways humans design systems that support current civilization. The extent or overlap and congruence of these two spheres predicts the relative success or failure of Ecological Design.
RESILIENCY
The survival of modern societies depends on making a design shift from the rigid instability to flowing resilience at every scale of human settlement. From village to megacities, we must design to provide our basic needs for balanced healthy natural/human ecosystems that provide clean water and air, energy, food, and the safe recycling of all wastes.
THE CONSCIOUSNESS STRUCTURE DIAGRAM
The Consciousness Structure Diagram is my attempt to synthesize information from diverse sources into a map of the various stages of human history on the planet and relate them to the essential and changing nature of Place, Pattern, and Process.
Through each stage of civilization. I identify five stages of human development form the first humans to today’s civilization dominated by a separation from nature and self through technology, homogenization of cultures and oligarchy, with hope for a transformation into a new Integral Consciousness that restructures our race towards extinction.
SEVEN SIMPLE PRINCIPLES OF LIVING BUILDINGS*
1. Harvest all their own water and energy needs
2. Adapt to specific local site and climate
3. Zero waste and pollution
4. Promote health and well being of all
5. Integrate systems to maximize efficiency and comfort.
6. Improve the helath and diversity of local ecosystems.
7. Be beautiful and inspire us to higher levels of awareness and action.
* Thanks to Jason McLennan
ECOLOGICAL LEARNING CURVE
For years as a Professor and consultant to schools at levels from pre-school through high school, I imagined in my mind a picture of how all the elements of learning at different ages could be represented in a diagram that integrated learning levels with place, pattern, and process and also spatial scales of natural and humanly created systems. The Ecological Learning Curve is that diagram.
The learning age levels is represented vertically from bottom to top. The type of learning is represented by the circles of Place, Pattern, Process. Place at the bottom recognizes that young children learn best no through abstraction but by direct experience of Place. As their minds and brains grow, they begin to learn patterns, and later, the processes that shape our world.
The scale of systems – natural and invented – is represented horizontally from the largest on the left to the smallest on the right. The center line represents a “home base” of scales closest to us in size, with the left bar moving to large scales, the right side to smaller scales.
QUALITIES & QUANTITIES
This simple diagram presents a client or designer with the intrinsic qualities and material quantities that are integrated into a specific design solution. At the center is a measure of a final product in human, environmental and economic performance.
by Paul Swensson | Living Future
Reprinted with permission from Trim Tab
Beverly McAuley, the Senior Director of Sustainability and Education at Moore & Giles, has advocated for material health and transparency for years. Her passion for material safety led Moore & Giles to be the first leather company with a Declare label in 2017. And now, because of her efforts, they have over a dozen Declare labels, all Red List Free, and most third-party verified.
Beverly’s dedication to regenerative design and safe products transcends disclosure. By working with her suppliers to address hazardous chemicals within the supply chain, Beverly is changing the tanning industry. By leading with empathy and collaboration, she is safeguarding end users and protecting tanneries from harmful exposures.
What made you decide to push your suppliers for the removal of Red List ingredients and to publicly disclose those ingredients?
Historically, people have trusted that the food we eat and the products we use are safe. Through the years, we’ve seen negative impacts resulting from that way of thinking, like using asbestos, lead, and Teflon in nonstick pans. Now, it feels like we are in an era filled with the desire to have the information to allow us to take control of our destiny and ultimately our legacy, through our decisions. That requires a certain level of transparency, whether it’s the food we put in our bodies or the products we put in our buildings. Moore & Giles became an early adopter and the first leather company to achieve a Declare label as our format of choice for ingredient transparency.
“Even if they’re not flagged against the Red List. We are approaching transparency from a place of curiosity by asking what each chemical does, if we must use it, and if there might be a better way.”
Our process to achieve full material disclosure has been a journey—easy with some and requiring a bit more patience with others—but through gathering that deep level of disclosure, we’re now able to screen the chemicals
against the Living Building Challenge (LBC) Red List to learn more about their impacts. That’s all meant to provide a background of what got us to this point.
Our process in general, is to ensure that our products are compliant with specific regulatory lists, like Cal Prop 65 and REACH, in addition to restricted substances lists like the LBC Red List. When entering a product and its ingredients, if we see any red flags, we’ll notify the supplier and request that they remove the ingredient and substitute it with a safer chemical. That’s simply become our standard procedure. I assume if a substance is on the Red List, we should remove it. It’s the right thing to do. It’s better for all of us. The whole process has opened our eyes to exploring other ingredients, even if they’re not flagged against the Red List. We are approaching transparency from a place of curiosity by asking what each chemical does, if we must use it, and if there might be a better way. This method has led to some inspiring side effects, with our suppliers now doing the same thing, and seeking out innovative options. If we can replace a chemical with something that’s safer and will still create the same product, why not?
What was the process you used to convince your suppliers to share their ingredients and remove Red List ingredients?
There is historic evidence that leather is older than fire, next to wood and water, leather is the oldest material humans are still dealing with in the built environment. There’s a long history there. Some of these tanneries, our suppliers, are family-owned, multi-generational, over one-hundredyear-old companies. When we started requesting information, it was unexpected and new because no one else was asking.
We originally sent a supplier survey, asking for full material disclosure for all of the products we purchased from each supplier as well as another five-page document full of questions for them to answer. We hit it hard, received a couple of responses… and a lot of crickets. It was too much, not only because of what we were asking but also the tech side was confusing across our global supply chain. So, we corrected our course and backed up a bit.
We worked on educating our suppliers on the why. Why are we asking for this information? Who else is asking for this (clients, project architects, etc.)? What are we going to do with it? It was important to make it clear that it wasn’t just Moore & Giles asking for this level of disclosure, but that there was a return on investment connected to the ask. This informative approach supported the fact that we were doing this for a good reason.
When we started, some clients didn’t even know what Declare was. But now, some design libraries won’t specify a product unless you meet certain requirements like the Declare label. The industry is evolving to support these requests a lot more than it did when we began.
After educating on the why, we provided step-by-step training sessions to guide suppliers through logistics. We recorded a virtual training on how to fill out the forms and how to give full material disclosure. The most important thing that was really concerning suppliers was that they were worried they were giving away all their secrets. Consider your great-grandmother and her most loved recipe. If she is like my Great-Grandmother, she is protective of her legacy and will leave out an ingredient so that no one ever makes it as good as she did. (True Story).
Giving up that secret recipe and potentially handing it over to competitors is a common concern for many suppliers when it comes to transparency. So, we worked with Toxnot, now 3E Exchange, to help our suppliers understand how they can make an ingredient proprietary to protect their recipe while still providing the ability to screen against hazard lists like the Red List.
Putting their fears at ease and requesting one product per supplier really started to shift things in motion. Once we achieve one Declare label with a supplier, they seem to get it and feel confident doing more! Today we’re receiving regular product disclosures and tanneries are much more open to the process.
I often think about an experience I had with one tannery. Something had been flagged on the Red List, and when we reached out to them to remove that ingredient, they responded later to thank us. That doesn’t happen very often. But they reached out and told us that no one had questioned it. They’d always made it that way and never had a reason to change because it’s what worked, it’s what people purchased, and it’s just the way it was. And that right there is the way humans have been operating, whether it’s the food we buy, the clothes we wear, or the products we specify—it’s business as usual. However, in this case, when we questioned their ingredients and asked if they could seek a safer alternative for one product, they found a much safer ingredient and incorporated that change throughout their entire product offering. This created a shift in the way of thinking and changed the way we deal with that tannery now. If they make a change or find something innovative and sustainable, we’re their first call. We celebrate these positive shifts together, which is important for all of us to remember to do, as we navigate our way to a sustainable and regenerative future. Today, this tannery is investigating regenerative farming solutions, upgrading to more energy-efficient equipment, and using renewables, in addition to material health. It is so rewarding to look back and see how that chemical change request was the tipping point to where we are today, with all parties looking through a lens of curiosity to ask, “What better solutions might exist?”.
What have been the impacts on your business and your consumers since removing Red List ingredients from the supply chain?
One important aspect to consider while you’re looking for sustainable attributes that we learned early on is aesthetic. The quality and aesthetic of the product needs to be as similar as possible to what the client is used to, or better. You can be as sustainable as you want to be, but if it’s not desirable, it typically won’t be specified. Thankfully, the ingredient changes on our products haven’t had a
“Even if they’re not flagged against the Red List. We are approaching transparency from a place of curiosity by asking what each chemical does, if we must use it, and if there might be a better way.”
negative aesthetic impact. We can’t tell the difference. Our clients can’t tell the difference and there is no change in quality or performance. The switch is a success and has been a no-brainer and encourages designers to consider sustainable products in their projects.
The architectural and design industry has become more aware of the Declare label, and it’s recognized on green building platforms and scoring systems, helping our products’ recognition. Many design libraries, like the Genslers, the Perkins & Wills, and others who are making their own material specification requirements are also recognizing Declare Red List Free labels, emphasizing thirdparty verification, which is so important, and something we believe in and incorporate.
“The quality and aesthetic of the product needs to be as similar as possible to what the client is used to, or better. You can be as sustainable as you want to be, but if it’s not desirable, it typically won’t be specified. Thankfully, the ingredient changes on our products haven’t had a negative aesthetic impact. We can’t tell the difference and there is no change in quality or performance. The switch is a success and has been a no-brainer.”
All of this effort has led to more specifications resulting in purchases. That’s bottom line, return on investment right there! Some companies are still in that space where you have to prove ROI before you can do anything from a sustainable perspective. And for those folks, I can say that we’re there, we’ve done the work, and we’re experiencing results. Sure, it’s taken a lot of work and building trust to shift our age-old industry to this level of transparency. But now they’re just proud to be part of it and join hands with us to lead the way forward!
Having a healthy portfolio of third-party verified, Red List Free Declare labels is important to us, and it will continue to be part of our plan. We’re beginning to see our competitors come along behind us. Paving the way is invigorating, but it can also be a challenge because rather than navigating an existing path, you are instead making the effort and investment through trial and error to create it. I always say celebrate your trailblazers in every market because they’ve done the work. Ultimately, we’re doing the work so that people will follow. My only question is: what’s taking so long?
Any final thoughts you want to leave with our readers?
Take the risk, BE the leader, and blaze those trails! I’m happy to talk to anyone about my process and the value beyond ROI that having a Declare label has brought our team and our tanneries.
We will never fully realize the extent of the ripples of the positive impacts that are created from decisions like these. And that has to be okay. To companies that need proof of return on investment before change will happen: you are falling behind. We must consider and discuss the cost of doing nothing. When determining the cost of the materials we specify, purchase, use, and ultimately discard, we must shift to a culture of including the impact on our planet, human health, and future generations of using those materials and their ingredients as part of the cost, multiplied by the impacts created by frequent replacements if it is a lowcost, short-term product. We must choose well, not often, making verified sustainable choices that support environmental and human health and take an active role in a circular economy. These key elements need to become part of the ROI equation. For now, we might not know what the final numbers are, but we do know that there is an impact to every decision that we make, creating our legacy in real-time. The question is, will the legacy you leave behind be a good one?
Beverly McAuley, Senior Director of Sustainability and Education at Moore & Giles
Buildings That Inspire Us PHAEDRA
GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM New York City
HUSKY STADIUM - UNIV. OF WASHINGTON Seattle, Washington
CLICK ON PHOTO TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BUILDING
ST BASIL’S CATHEDRAL (RED SQUARE) Moscow, Russia
LA FABRICA IN BARCELONA BY RICARDO BOFILL Barcelona, Spain
VALS THERME (Designed by Peter Zumthor 1996) Vals, Switzerland
COPENHIL Copenhagen, Denmark
The McLennan Design studio staff picks buildings that have inspired them.
JOHN
SUSAN
KISHORE
JUAN
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN Smithsonian Institution (Washington D.C.)
MANITOBA HYDRO PLACE Manitoba, Canada
THORNCROWN CHAPEL (Architect Fay Jones) Eureka Springs, Arkansas
SALK INSTITUTE Santa Barbara, California
THE RICHARD ROGERS DRAWING GALLERY Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade, France
MIT CHAPEL (Architect Eero Saarinen) Cambridge, Massachusetts
SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, CEPT UNIVERSITY (B. V. Dosh, Architect) Ahmedabad, India
ABLITT TOWER (Jeff Shelton, Architect) Santa Barbara, California
KIYOMIZU-DERA TEMPLE Kyoto Japan
PERSEPOLIS: THE CAPITAL OF ACHAEMENID EMPIRE AND HOME TO CYRUS THE GREAT! Fars Province, Marvdasht, Iran
HISTORIC ROOF TRUSSES
All 58 of the original roof trusses were preserved, painted, and lined with LED strip lights that provide ambient overhead lighting
FSC MODULAR CABINETRY
Manufactured by local Seattle outfit
SpaceTheory, the modular kitchen cabinetry and walnut shelving provides an elegant aesthetic with minimal installation labor required
RADIANT FLOORS
A new concrete floor slab hosts hydronic tubing for ultra-efficient radiant heating
INSIDE THE STUDIO
HUDSON BAY TRADING COMPANY INSPIRED CANOE
Welcome to our innovation and regeneration headquarters! An open, collaborative working environment for our whole team, this light-filled space is the perfect place for creativity to flourish. Perfectly daylit with minimal glare from tall north-facing windows and solar-powered skylights above, the space features FSC wood plank walls, salvaged wood windows
SALVAGED WOOD FLOATING SHELVES
Old-growth Douglas fir salvaged from the Barracks floor joists serve as perfect shelves!
MOHAWK CARPET
Award-winning, Red-List-Free carpet lines from Mohawkdesigned in collaboration with McLennan Design - draw their inspiration from natural elements such as lichen and owl feathers.
and floating shelves, and an operable glass wall that can be opened to provide full connectivity to the conference room beyond. The generous ceiling height showcases the original historic roof trusses that were protected and preserved in the renovation process, while sit-stand desks and custom planter dividers are all mounted on casters to allow for maximum flexibility.
for high-speed energy modeling and rendering
C)
or sit - our desks are always comfortable!
A) High-tech desktop computer
B) Office mascot lounging in the bumpout window bay
Stand
D) Colored pencils for quick sketching
E) Custom storage cart built by a former intern!
F) Original 1907 doors salvaged from Seattle's historic Moore Theater
G) Nothing beats a dog in the office!
Smoldering Dawn
Poem by Amanda Gorman about the LA Wildfires
Click here to contribute to the California Fire Foundation
All our angels are gone. In this smoldering dawn we soldier on. We've proved ourselves strong. Not by how badly we've burned. By how bravely we bond. Apocalypse does not mean ruin but revelation. In devastation this infurnus has injured us but it cannot endure us. Even in surreal, we do not surrender. We emerge from the embers. The hardest part is not disaster, but the after. Scorched earth is where the heart hurts. What we restore first where we start the work. Today we mourn. Tomorrow re born. We end the burning. Befriend the hurting. Mend those who face the flame. We reclaim our city's name.
A revelation that only this place tells: to find our angles, all we need do is look within ourselves.
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.
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.
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF MARKETING MANAGER
GRAPHIC DESIGN CONTRIBUTORS
SOCIAL MEDIA
Jason F. McLennan
Jay Torrell
Susan Roth
Galen Carlson, Paul Swensson/trimtab
Winter 2025, Volume 7, Issue 1
LOVE + REGENERATION is a quarterly publication of McLennan Design, LLC.
© 2025 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: Sim Van Der Ryn (photo from UC Berkeley)
WANT TO HAVE THE NEXT ISSUE OF L+R EMAILED TO YOU? SUBSCRIBE HERE
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