A cursory glance at the winners of this year’s Evergreen Awards reveals an intriguing commonality: All have a connection to sustainable-design education. One project is home to students majoring in forestry and environmental studies, two others were designed and built by students, and the last one serves as an object-lesson in how design firms and municipalities can push beyond current barriers in sustainable construction. Rounding out the awards is the winner of our Perspective category, which recognizes an individual for his or her contribution to sustainable design. This year’s recipient has spent years working to educate building owners and operators about how to achieve better environmental performance from their facilities.
A longer look at the winners reveals another issue of particular importance—and frustration—for this year’s jury: There is much work to be done to improve the performance of existing building stock. So this year’s Evergreen Awards marks the debut of a new category for existing buildings. The jury, however, was underwhelmed by the industry’s response to this market challenge, and chose not to bestow an award in the category. The lesson to learn from this? While we’ve made great strides in improving environmental performance, the journey is far from over.
Speaking of our jury, many thanks to Lidia Berger of HDR in Alexandria, Va.; Julie Hendricks, AIA, of Kirksey Architecture in Houston; William Leddy, FAIA, of Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects in San Francisco; Tania Salgado, AIA, of RNL in Denver; and Jan Carl Willemse, AIA, of ZGF Architects in Portland, Ore.
Jury
Lidia Berger Lidia Berger is vice president and national sustainable director for the federal program for HDR. Based in Alexandria, Va., Berger has 17 years of professional experience in the Washington, D.C., area. She has managed teams performing SROI studies for clients such as Johns Hopkins University and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. She is a founding member of the USGBC National Capital Region chapter, was involved in the development of the LEED-CI rating system, and served on the LEED-EB core committee. She is a current member of ’s editorial advisory board, and is a nationally known speaker at conferences for the USGBC webinar series, Practice Greenhealth, USGBC Federal Summit, EcoBuild America and EcoBuild Federal, and the Tradeline conference. hdrinc.com
Julie Hendricks, AIA Julie Hendricks is the director of research and innovation at Kirksey Architecture in Houston. She has consulted on and managed the LEED process for 40 projects and many building types, adding up to more than 7 million square feet of space. She has been a part of Kirksey’s EcoServices team for six years, has been a LEED accredited professional for eight years, and has been a registered architect for 10 years. She frequently speaks on the topic of green building, and has written a number of published articles on the topic. Hendricks is very active in volunteering and advocating for green building in the Houston community, and holds leadership positions in the USGBC and the Citizens’ Environmental Coalition. She is an executive committee member of the Gulf Coast Green conference, and has taught architecture at the Boston Architectural College and Prairie View A&M University. kirksey.com
William Leddy, FAIA As a founding principal of San Francisco–based Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects, William Leddy, FAIA, has received numerous regional and national design awards from organizations including the American Institute of Architects, the U.S. Department of Energy, the USGBC, and the Urban Land Institute. The AIA has named four of his designs as Committee on the Environment (COTE) Top Ten Green Projects. He has lectured nationally on the topics of resource efficiency, universal design, and design excellence, and has served as visiting professor at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, the University of California at Berkeley, and the California College of the Arts. Examples of his work are included in the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He was elected to the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows in 2003, and currently serves on the national AIA’s COTE Advisory Group. lmsarch.com
Tania Salgado, AIA Tania Salgado, AIA, is an architect and design principal in the Denver office of RNL, a global design firm providing planning, architecture, urban design, landscape architecture, and interior design. She is a licensed architect in both Colorado and New Mexico, and is a LEED accredited professional. Salgado has held leadership positions with the AIA for several years, including her current position as AIA Denver’s past president of the board of directors. She has served on numerous awards juries and committees within the AIA and other organizations, and in 2009 was honored with the AIA National Young Architect of the Year award after receiving this award from both Denver and Western Mountain Region AIA chapters. In 2009, she was named one of Denver Business Journal’s 40 Under 40, Colorado’s Design and Construction 20 Under 40, and has been twice a finalist for Denver’s most influential business leaders for the Power Book Celebration. rnldesign.com
Jan Carl Willemse, AIA Jan Willemse, technical design partner for ZGF Architects, approaches architecture as a synthesis of art and science, infused with a strong sense of social responsibility. He researches and implements strategies that support design and innovation, with a focus on the intelligent application of sustainable building systems and materials. His projects have ranged from new children’s hospitals in Portland and Denver to Portland International Airport terminal expansions to the California Science Center in Los Angeles’s Exposition Park. He has also worked on major research and clinical facilities for clients including Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, and the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland. Willemse graduated from the University of Oregon with a bachelor’s of architecture and is a registered architect in the State of California. zgf.com
