Design on the Edge: The Making of a High-performance Building

The story of the Adam Joseph Lewis Center at Oberlin College--the first substantiallygreen building to be built on a college campus--encompasses more than the particulars of onebuilding. In Design on the Edge, David Orr writes about the planning and design of Oberlin'senvironmental studies building as part of a larger story about the art and science of ecologicaldesign and the ability of institutions of higher learning themselves to learn.The Lewis Center,which has attracted worldwide attention as a model of ecological design, operates according toenvironmental principles. It is powered entirely by solar energy, features landscaping with fruittrees and vegetable gardens, and houses a Living Machine, which processes all wastewater for reusein the building or landscape. Orr puts the Lewis Center into historical design context and describesthe obstacles and successes he encountered in obtaining funds and college approval, interweaving theparticulars of the center with thoughts on the larger environmental and societal issues the buildingprocess illustrates.Equal parts analysis, personal reflection, and call to action, Design on theEdge illustrates the process of institutional change, institutional learning, and the politicaleconomy of design. It describes how the idea of the Lewis Center originated and was translated intoreality with the help of such environmental visionaries as William McDonough and John Todd, and howthe building has performed since its completion.College and university administrators will spend 17billion dollars on new buildings over the next few years. Design on the Edge is essential readingfor architects, planners, and environmentalists who need to sell the innovations of ecologicaldesign to wary institutions, and for educators and students whose profession is undermined by thevery buildings they work in--and for anyone who has ever tried to change an organization for thebetter.

David W. Orr is Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics at Oberlin College and the author of The Nature of Design: Ecology, Culture, and Human Intention, The Last Refuge: Patriotism, Politics, and the Environment in an Age of Terror, Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human Prospect, and Ecological Literacy.