As energy and environmental issues loom ever larger in the public consciousness, architecture schools around the nation are seeing an explosion of interest in sustainable design.

At Washington University in St. Louis, students and faculty in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts have increasingly integrated environmental principles and techniques into the architecture curriculum.

Over the next several weeks, the Sam Fox School's Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design will take on the issue with special intensity, through a series of intensive "Master Classes in Environmental Design." Topics range from building technologies and sustainable building design to landscape design and urban and regional planning.

"We tend to think of energy efficiency as a transportation issue — about cars and gas mileage," said Jerry Sincoff, dean of Architecture. "But in developed countries, buildings account for nearly half of energy consumption. It's becoming a major issue for contemporary architects and something that students feel very strongly about."

Sustainability is a topic close to Sincoff's heart. During his tenure as president and chief executive officer of HOK from 1990-2001, the firm began a major initiative to incorporate sustainable design into many of its projects and even published The HOK Guidebook to Sustainable Design (2000), one of the most influential and widely read books on the subject.

The HOK Guidebook to Sustainable Design, now in its second edition, is co-authored by two WUSTL alumni — Mary Ann Lazarus [1978] and Sandra Ford Mendler [1981] — along with William Odell.

The environmental master classes will feature more than a dozen experts from around the country, including Mendler, now vice president and sustainable design principal for HOK's San Francisco office.

Source: "Architecture Education Reinforces Importance of Sustainable Design," Washington University Record, March 31, 2006, by Liam Otten. Read the story.