Championing the
Changemakers

As the 101st president of AIA National, Evelyn Lee is rising to the current challenges in architecture and beyond with a clear upward trajectory informed by a unique background and philosophy. “My path here has been anything but conventional,” Lee said in her inauguration speech. “The road hasn’t always been easy, and I know that there... Read more

“I started the night of the event,” architect and designer May Sung says of her community rebuilding efforts needed as a result of the Palisades fire. “I was getting texts from all my clients, neighbors and friends.” Would my home survive? (Comparatively few did.) Do I have time to get out? (Barely.) There was confusion in the evacuation... Read more

The designers who participated in the 19th Biennale d’Architettura di Venezia all began with the same environmental anxiety—what the critic Ian Volner called a, “searching, no-bad-ideas rap session on the human prospect”—and concluded with vastly different forms of community-mindedness, ethical decarbonization and radical regeneration. But the... Read more

The Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) kicked off its grand opening on Friday, September 19, 2025, led by Artistic Director Florencia Rodriguez. There are over 400 original projects with numerous installations located in the Chicago Cultural Center (78 E. Washington Street, Chicago, IL 60602) as well as select locations throughout... Read more

The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), in partnership with Georgetown University’s Global Cities Initiative, is proud to host its second annual Healthy Building Policy Summit in Washington, D.C., on September 29. This landmark, full-day event is dedicated to exploring the critical role of policy at all levels of government in... Read more

January 7, 2025, started off like any other morning in my Malibu neighborhood. I woke up and took a deep look at the ocean view that I can luckily see from my bed and thanked the universe that I am as fortunate as I am to be able to live in this slice of paradise. I open my slider and let out my darling English Black Lab, Bear. She pounces out... Read more

In 1994, Jay Chiat of advertising firm TBWA/Chiat/Day invited Gaetano Pesce to design the company’s New York City office. Pesce responded with one of the most controversial and radical workplace interiors ever built. His approach abandoned normal materials and corporate formalities in favor of colorful, sculptural environments. The space... Read more

Most of the attendees at this year’s AIA Conference on Architecture (June 4-7) couldn’t believe their bad luck—it was 90 degrees in the shade. In June. In Boston.

They escaped cities like Atlanta, Phoenix and Tulsa, which averaged 89 degrees that week, so this was supposed to be a mild junket on the banks of the River Charles... Read more

By Nadav Malin and Paula Melton

It’s here. So what’s new?

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) released LEED v5 for its first public comment period on April 3, 2024, giving us our first detailed look at the next generation of the program that has defined green building in North America and around the world for more than... Read more

The seeds of what is now BuildingGreen were planted nearly four decades ago, when Alex Wilson started the company in his home in Dummerston, Vermont. Alex and his wife, Jerelyn Wilson, created this company and have nurtured it ever since.

Both Alex and Jerelyn are retiring from BuildingGreen at the end of... Read more

What a pleasure it was hosting Sarah Talkington (LEED Steering Committee chair) and Keith Amann (past chair of the LEED Advisory Committee, past member of the LEED Steering Committee) for our recent LEEDuser coffee talk, What’s up with LEED v5?

Even better: Sarah and Keith generously agreed to answer some lingering questions we didn’t... Read more

Mindful MATERIALS is partnering with BuildingGreen, a leader in green building knowledge, consulting, and communities, to broaden the building product manufacturing and AEC industries’ understanding of the Common Materials Framework (CMF). The CMF is a common language for sustainability data that will help databases and certification... Read more

When it comes to sustainability, modular carpet is a surprisingly complicated product. It’s made with a range of different backings and face fibers and various other compounds that might be added as filler, surface treatments, antimicrobials, and more. Setting a bar that optimizes for climate, health, and circularity is... Read more

We hear a lot about the sustainability commitments and plans of large architecture firms, but the reality is that the vast majority of firms—about 75% in 2019, according to research done by the American Institute of Architects (AIA)—are small (by their definition, “small” means ten or fewer employees). Although these small firms represent a... Read more

2021 was a year in a string of years of unprecedented weather-related events: mega tornados, record-shattering heat domes, and ever-expanding forest fires. But even in a year like this, the Marshall Fire stands out as something new: a grass fire that turned into an urban firestorm--destroying entire suburban communities on Colorado’s... Read more

Seriously, what are we thinking? Lush golf courses, thirsty almond groves, and huge metropolises in the desert. More sprawling cities built on flood plains. And we wonder why water is dangerously scarce in some places and destructively abundant in others.

We are out of balance with natural water cycles, and we pay for it—billions of... Read more

The themes of Living Future ’21 were unmistakable: a strong call from leaders in the building professions for allyship around justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI).

A few important ways to do this stood out:

MEP systems contribute to both the initial construction and lifetime embodied carbon footprint of an example office building. This MEP footprint begins at construction and grows over time is due to operations, refrigerant leakage, and replacement.

The Sustainable MEP Leaders group, organized by BuildingGreen, is a group of motivated... Read more

It has been quite a wild ride! As The BuildingGreen Report (formerly Environmental Building News) celebrates its 30th year of publication, we decided to track the growth—and explosion—of the green building movement. We start in 1990 with the founding of AIA’s Committee on the Environment.

To celebrate Volume... Read more

February 22, 2021 – President Biden has made a commitment to “Build Back Better” in the wake of COVID-19, the economic crisis, social upheaval, and regulatory rollbacks by the former administration. A growing group of architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms is calling on Biden to also build back greener. He can... Read more