Practice Disrupted by Practice of Architecture

111: Practice with Purpose - A Guide to Mission Driven Design

Apr 20, 2023

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Episode 111: Practice with Purpose - A Guide to Mission Driven Design

How can architects address some of society’s most urgent challenges?

Written by LEDDY MAYTUM STACY Architects, “Practice with Purpose: A Guide to Mission Driven Design” is about designing buildings beyond their property lines to address some of society’s most urgent challenges: the climate emergency, racial and ethnic injustice, chronic homelessness, educational crises, and the preservation of the embodied carbon and culture of existing buildings. These are not discrete phenomena - they are inextricably linked in an ecological and societal emergency that demands creative, integrated design responses. Architects and designers have a historic opportunity to help lead our communities toward an equitable, climate-positive future for all.

This week we sit down with Founding Principal William Leddy and Senior Associate Gwen Fuertes of LMSA to learn more about the firm’s model for practice, their new book, their projects, and net zero carbon architecture.

Guests:

William Leddy, FAIA, is a Founding Principal of San Francisco-based LEDDY MAYTUM STACY Architects, the 2017 recipient of the AIA Firm Award. For over 30 years, he has been a national leader in the design of environments that celebrate our place in the natural world. LMSA has received more than 175 design awards and is one of only three firms to have received eleven or more national AIA Committee on the Environment Top Ten Green Project awards. A past chair of the national AIA COTE, he currently serves as the AIA California Vice President for Climate Action, helping to advance the rapid decarbonization of the built environment in California and beyond. He is the co-author of his firm’s new book – “Practice with Purpose: A Guide to Mission Driven Design”, published in late 2022.

Gwen Fuertes, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, has two decades of work in design, research, and analysis of high-performing buildings. She began her career at the US Green Building Council in Washington, DC. She then worked at the Center for the Built Environment (CBE) as a graduate student researcher, acquiring a depth of expertise in building science and post-occupancy analysis. Gwen has worked at LEDDY MAYTUM STACY Architects for over nine years, designing low-carbon, mission-driven projects in Northern California.

Gwen was a member and former co-chair of the AIA 2030 Commitment working group, most recently leading the pivot of the program towards a carbon-focused metric. She was also a member of the LEED Technical Committee. She has taught at California College of the Arts and UC Berkeley as an adjunct lecturer, focusing on energy efficiency, resilience and resource cycles, and considers teaching a passion. She has spoken at numerous national conferences on integrating low-carbon design in practice.