Many people recognize the term LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, as a positive, green designation. And it is — it’s an internationally recognized mark of excellence that’s given to structures that meet certain sustainable qualifications [source: U.S. Green Building Council]. But architect Thom Mayne, the 2005 Pritzker Architecture Prize winner (aka the architect’s Nobel), hopes people don’t consider LEED standards the final word for sustainable architecture. More specifically, he doesn’t believe buildings must sport a certain look, or meet very specific standards, to be considered green. Instead, he’d prefer to look more at a building’s long-term environmental performance when deciding if it’s sustainable or not [source: Bowen].
Mayne founded California-based architectural firm Morphosis in 1972, and focuses on creating innovatively designed structures offering long-range, eco-friendly benefits. Recent projects, such as the San Francisco Federal Building and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite operations center in Maryland, sport features such as green roofs, solar power and thermally efficient outer-wall designs. After Hurricane Katrina hit the Big Easy in 2005, Mayne — in conjunction with actor Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation — created the FLOAT house specifically for the families of New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward. These pre-fab, green homes sit above the ground on a chassis or sorts, which can rise up to 12 feet (3.7 meters) along guideposts in the event of flooding [source: Make It Right].
(McManus, Melanie Radzicki. “10 Influential Green Architects” 08 May 2012. HowStuffWorks.com. <http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/construction/green/10-influential-green-architects.htm> 21 October 2013.)
Designed by 2005 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate Thom Mayne and his firm Morphosis Architects, the building was conceived as a large cube floating over a landscaped plinth (or base) and is designed to inspire awareness of science through an immersive and interactive environment. It has a stone roof which features a landscape of drought-tolerant greenery […]
The San Francisco Federal Building is an 18-story, 71.3 m (234 ft) skyscraper at 90 7th Street on the corner of Mission and 7th Streets in South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The building was designed by the Morph sis architectural firm, as a supplement to the Phillip Burton Federal Building at 450 […]
Energy efficient and sustainability features designed into the project led to a Gold LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Elements that led to this include landscaping that reduces runoff from rainwater, lots of natural light, a more efficient HVAC system that is located under the floors, and a location near public transit. Landscaping […]
The complex structure and skin adapt to the tower’s nonstandard form while simultaneously responding to a range of complex, and often competing, physical and environmental considerations. Technologies integrated into the Phare Tower capture the wind for the production of energy and selectively minimize solar gain while maximizing glare-free daylight. Its high-performance skin transforms with changes […]
The Academic Building has achieved a LEED Platinum rating, the first for an institutional building in New York City. It employs standard methods of construction where a reinforced concrete framing is cast on site and enclosed in an aluminum and glass curtain wall. The operable perforated stainless steel skin is offset from the glass but […]
The Caltrans District 7 Headquarters building at 100 South Main Street in Downtown Los Angeles, California serves the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and the Los Angeles Department of Transportation. Built on a $165,000,000 budget it opened on September 24 2004. Its futuristic and environmentally friendly design has won its designer Thom Mayne the 2005 […]