I am a fair weather sustainable commuter. I not ashamed to admit that biking or walking to work in the snow is just not my thing. It may have to do with the fact that I have to drop off a little one at daycare on my way to work or it may just be I don’t like the cold.

Spring in Michigan is a great time of year.  Trees and flowers are blooming, birds are chirping and people get outdoors after winter.  2012 is no exception, but with record breaking temperatures across the region, the first week of spring felt like summer.  I’m not complaining about the beautiful weather, but I’ve lived here most of my 50 years and have never seen a spring so early and hot.  I wonder if this is due to climate change and have a sense that this weather may have other effects that we don’t yet realize, but will need to address.

On November 3rd and 4th, the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) conducted the Campus Heritage Symposium to reflect on years of study funded by the ambitious Campus Heritage Initiative grant program of the Getty Foundation. (Quinn Evans Architects prepared the Cultural Landscape Report for the University of Wisconsin-Madison.) Dozens of presentations illustrated the tremendous diversity of campuses, from cloistered enclaves for a few hundred to sprawling complexes for tens of thousands, from Collegiate Gothic and Colonial traditions to icons of 20th century innovation.

Biomimicry.

I recently watched a webinar on this very subject and although I had heard of it before, it sparked up my interest on the topic.

Biomimicry is the process of learning from or taking inspiration from nature, its models, systems, and processes in order to solve human problems. The word literally means "to imitate life." Although biomimicry has influenced many important products such as Velcro, the shape of wind power fins and Michael Phelps's famous sharkskin swimwear, it also can inform the design of architecture.

When it comes to sustainability in architecture, we tend to speak in terms of decades. Sustainability – the ability literally to hold something up, to keep it alive. The "it" could be a brick wall or an entire campus, but generally we're talking about using resources wisely – how long can a building physically work? What is the lifecycle cost of a material, or a system, or an entire structure?

A few years ago, my husband and I were visiting a friend from college while on vacation. This friend also happened to be an architect, and when we arrived in town she informed us that we would find her at the public library because people from her office were attending the opening reception and awards ceremony for Canstruction®. Can-WHAT?!

On February 2nd, I participated in the Fit Nation conference here in Washington DC. Sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the AIA and American Architectural Foundation, it focused on the obesity and diabetes epidemics and the role that urban conditions and building design play.

When the theme of sustainability runs through almost every project honored at an annual preservation awards ceremony, you know that the tides have changed. On November 4, 2010, the 2010 District of Columbia Awards for Excellence in Historic Preservation recognized 12 projects and 2 individuals. The featured projects celebrated varied demonstrations that the reuse of existing buildings is the best way to a sustainable future.

Modular construction inherently has its sustainable aspects. Construction begins in a plant, where materials as well as the building process are subject to lean manufacturing standards and rigors . This leads to material, labor and resource efficiency. Transport stresses require that walls, floors, roofs all become stout and everything must be glued and screwed – making for tighter seams in a beefier thermal envelope. The nature of the process requires that all systems be thought of DURING the design phase, integrated in a manner that is necessary for product development and its purpose.

It was a cold and rainy morning in our Nation's Capitol, but I was looking forward to the Women in Preservation (WIP) breakfast. The rainy weather and a Metro train experiencing mechanical difficulties made the commute a little longer than expected but there was a warm breakfast and over 160 other WIPs awaiting my arrival.  Until a month or so ago when I received an email regarding the breakfast from a coworker, Katie Irwin, another WIP, I was unaware of WIPs existence.