REMEMBERING
Lance Hosey
Lance has been such an important mentor, friend, inspiration and guide. He will live on in the hearts of the many, many people he touched. We hope that these rememberances offer some comfort.
This is sudden, shocking, and sad to me. Lance organized the first Greenbuild session I ever spoke on with him in 2012. Though our hair styles are very different...we had a great time together. He is a visionary that can feel the pulse of the profession and lead one step ahead. Should we capture all the stories in this forum and more for his family so they know how much we love, respect, and honor Lance and also let them see the professional side of Lance through our eyes? (Luke Leung) ___________ I agree, this is awful. Can we please get to BEST LANCE MOMENTS EVAH! Here is my first shot across the bow... We were at AIA conference and I heard that he was leaving RTKL, going to Perkins Eastman. I saw him and I asked if i could steal his staff (cause, I am like that). He said “No, i am taking them with me.” I loved him for so many reasons, but his support of the next generation was a big piece of who he was. He supported all things wonderful and great. I will miss him always, but for his love of what is good in this world and his dedication to raising up the next generation is a big piece of who he was. Rest in Peace Lance. You were loved. (Anne Hicks Harney) ___________ I am so sad and shocked. Lance was brilliant and a true friend. I have so many memories with him. Rest in peace Lance. (Greg Mella) ___________ Oh, this is so shocking and very sad news. I remember the Bainbridge wine... His legacy with the Green Movement is immense. And, he was talented at the piano as well, as observed on the SDL virtual “star” show. Rest in Peace Lance. (Martine Dion) ___________
What an honor and privilege that life brought us to you and Lance. What hilarity! Lance lived and loved so passionately. Across conference ballrooms, he would wave with his enthusiasm to say hello! Funny. Bright. Committed. He is sorely missed! Draw hope from the words of Emily Dickinson: “Unable are the loved to die, for the love is immortality.” You and your family remain in my heart and prayers. In the meantime, I hope that some lightness intervenes in the heaviness that you and your family are bearing right now. Even in the darkest times, you are never alone. Heartfelt condolences. (Maggie Thacker) ___________ My respects to a versatile leader. Rest In Peace, Lance. Just finished reading his NYT piece titled ‘Scent and the City.’ It has the same analytical rigor that he would bring to anything he touched. (Ramana Koti) ___________ Lance was a force. His voice is so present in the green movement. On a personal level one of the funniest and brightest people I have known. I can still hear that guttural laugh. He loved people and always had a ready smile. His strength to engage can be seen in all aspects of his work and relationships. I am so saddened by this news. (Allison Ewing) ___________ Unbelievably sad for all. Lance always seemed to know the right thing to say or do, especially when it was rough to keep going uphill in the LEED world. He truly embodied what a LEED Fellow is and should be. I’ll miss his leadership and “giving voice” to Women In Green with co-author and friend Kira Gould. There are many tears today… (Kath Williams) ___________
It’s taken me a while to write something here, mainly because I don’t even know where to start. I left USGBC to become part of the team that Lance built when he moved to RTKL in 2014, and he was such a great champion for us, and for everyone in his circle (which was large!). As many have noted, he had the intellect, fearlessness, and drive to have a big impact on our industry and his passion was infectious. Reading through all of these Lance stories and remembrances, I feel that I share many of the same memories as the people writing here. Lance’s laughter, love of puns, musical talent, and sense of humor were central to so many good times, fun events, and happy hours! I can’t even start to select specific stories to tell, but I will say that “Love of puns” was actually the name of Lance’s college band… I was looking back through so many group texts, and for some reason this one, random text seemed so quintessential Hosey:
My heart especially goes out to Kate and the Hosey/Higgins clan. Kate was a part of so many of our team’s happy hours and outings, and my face usually hurt from laughing too much when hanging out with that bunch. My condolences to Kate and the family and may Lance rest in peace. I’m still processing that Lance won’t be part of our future gatherings and endeavors, but I know that he’ll be there in spirit! (Tanya Eagle) ___________
Following Anne and Luke’s push for stories about Lance, I texted him this photo (he didn’t come to some event). In hindsight, I thought his response was especially poignant given this terrible news. (Eric Corey Freed) ___________
Lance had such a huge impact on our movement, and he influenced me directly in many ways. It’s no secret that he had some trouble settling down professionally after leaving McDonough and Partners, so I find it especially poignant that he’s suddenly gone, after he shared this recently about his latest position in San Diego: “Generally I’m loving HMC. Feel like I finally found my home.” Looking back more, I found this bit from a letter I wrote supporting his LEED Fellow nomination that I think captures something about how he affected me personally (and not just professionally): Lance’s work on Women in Green, however, illustrates an even rarer quality to his leadership: a willingness to put himself on the line and do the unexpected. “Who does this guy think he is?” was my first reaction when I saw Lance coauthoring and then promoting this work. But Lance was unapologetic about stepping up as a man to celebrate the special role of women in sustainability, and open to publicly exploring the questions that arose from his role in that initiative. More than almost anyone I know, he is unafraid to look foolish or face rejection, which allows him a special freedom and power to act and make things happen. It also makes him highly approachable—even endearing—despite his sometimes intimidating intellect, which further increases his effectiveness as a leader. I think that we can best honor his legacy by doubling down on the challenges we face and kicking some butt. (Nadav Malin) ___________ What a shock and loss for all of us. Lance was one of the few people who spoke sustainability to a wide audience beyond our industry and leaves a big hole in that critical area. He was very present and was always pushing us to think clearly about our collective goals. (Kjell Anderson) ___________
Hard to comprehend such a tragic loss – yes, what a force and great troublemaker he was – prolific and boundless, shining a light on tough topics - articles, books, policies, classes, and daylighting the most succinct tough issue or question. Who else would sneak out for wine at Bainbridge to “infuse” our conversations and lead us to (make sure we did) commit to actionable plans late into the night? I could never keep up with him but am ever grateful that he ran so fast and so far. Thank you, Lance – you paved so much of the way for us (Pauline Souza) ___________ I didn’t know Lance well, so I pulled out every trick and pitch I had to rope him into coming to Pittsburgh to speak at a conference shortly after I had moved here. It was a much smaller group than he really ought to have been speaking to at that point in his career, but he was incredibly gracious and delivered the presentation as if he was keynoting at Greenbuild. The timing was right about when Lessons from the Leading Edge was released, and he spoke about that work (which many of you contributed to) and findings that came from it. For all of the amazing projects he contributed to, it’s these roadmaps to a more sustainable and beautiful world - and he always lobbied for both - that I find most inspiring and enduring. My heartfelt condolences to his family and friends. He will be missed. (Pete Jefferson) ___________ I met Lance at the 40th Anniversary of the Center for Maximum Potential in Austin. I had no idea who he was then or that he’d have such a HUGE impact on my life. I was one of three graduate students in a room full of sustainability titans. I knew no one there but was passionate about sustainability. Pliny Fisk was gracious enough to introduce me to Lance. We talked about sustainability and sustainable design. I told him I was a
change of career student and was saddened that so few architects seem to care about sustainability. He said “F*** ‘em”, which made me laugh! I told him “Yeah you can say that cause you’re a big tall white guy. No one’s gonna listen to a 5’0” brown girl like me.” To which he replied “Yes.You can and should.” He made me feel seen in a way I’d never before. A year later, AIA National put out a call for a COTE Scholar to research work on High Performance Firms and Lance was the Committee Chair at the time. Lance put my name forward on a long list of talented people. I visited 10 firms across the U.S. and worked alongside Lance on this most amazing report. It was the experience of a lifetime. Lance made that possible for me. We stayed connected over the years and always supported me when I needed advice. I am so so incredibly saddened to hear this news. He was such a HUGE influence in my life. I miss you terribly Lance. (Sandra Montalbo) ___________ Lance was a new friend and mentor in the last year. I had long admired his outspokenness for what he believed in (read all things green) and in the short time I knew him he was incredibly generous with his time. As others had mentioned he spoke so highly of HMC and finding a spot that was ready to take off. It is heartbreaking to learn that his time was cut short when he was winning new, deeply sustainable work for his team. Last time we talked he dropped so many nuggets of wisdom on me and we had planned to meet up again in San Diego for Greenbuild. I am so sad to read this, but also encouraged to see how well thought of he is within this community. I know there were many, many people in the sustainable movement that he encouraged as he strove to make new paths for himself. (Arathi Gowda) ______________________
This post took my breath away. Lance was one of my most favorite people. I actually have two copies of his book The Shape of Green, because I am always referring to it myself and often need to loan out the other copy to people. I loved his thinking in that book - the science/neurology perspective and the connection to humanity - which was what Lance really was all about. Such a joy to spend time with him. Always provocative and supportive. So sad to hear this news. (Gail Borthwick) ___________ I find myself thinking of Women in Green, The Shape of Green and The Habits of High-Performance Firms which itself is dedicated to another legend gone too soon, Bill Worthen, and can’t help wondering what was yet to come. I mourn that big laugh, warm smile and drive to make this world better. He’s had a great impact on so many people. Saying his passing is a huge loss is an understatement. While I don’t think anyone will be able to fill Lance Hosey’s seat, as Eric shared, I echo Nadav’s thought of the best way to honor Lance is by doubling down and kicking some butt. I’ll raise my glass to kicking some butt. (Meredith Elbaum) ___________ Lance was larger than life, a towering intellect in our community, plus he was pretty damn funny. Such a loss for the green building movement and our group, but I’m thankful to have had the exposure to him that this group provided. (Jim Nicolow) ___________
I dropped my phone and cried after reading about this. What a powerful force Lance was. At IslandWood one year it was my daughter’s birthday. After sneaking in the wine, we were hanging out in one of the lounges and I asked many of you to sing her happy birthday. I still have that recording. There’s a point we’re Lance’s deep tone takes over as he sings “happy birrrrrthday dear...Mike’s daughter” that always makes me smile. We’ll miss you, Lance. (Mike Manzi) ___________ I’ve resisted even looking here, reading everyone’s thoughts makes it feel even sadder collectively... I’ve known Lance for more than 20 years (as many of you have) and known him through so many different permutations in his life and journey. He was such a blend of many things that I have yet to define even in my own understanding of him - but many of those things were surprising (to me) if you only see him in one “mode”. Some of you saw/participated in the Lighter Side of Green that I put together last year - Lance was the ONLY person who was (yes, believe it or not) too shy to want to show that side of himself!! I had to beg, use Kira as additional pressure and be relentless and then he gave that 1 min piano jam which was, of course, full of soul, energy and .... Lance! May his memory be a blessing and I am hoping that a scholarship fund is set up in his name to carry forth his dedication, passion and commitment to our common goal. (Barbra Batshalom) ___________
Lance Hosey ‘did some epic shit’ and kicked butt in his lifetime. He did not care if what he said was politically correct, he believed in doing the right thing, standing up for it and saying it loud. We can continue to honor him by doing just that. We do not intend to sit on the sidelines quietly and Lance’s lifetime example is a large part of our advocacy. Lance was also always happy to talk design, talk policy, talk to students, have a drink, or just keep in touch and we will always remember his generous spirit and his relentless force to make change within the architectural community and for our greater society. He is, and will remain for a long time, sorely missed. (Angie Brooks and Larry Scarpa) ___________ Oh my! It’s hard to put into words what the loss of Lance means to me... to all of us. Lance was a larger-than-life human who every day worked to make our design community and our work better for all. I first met Lance in the early days of the Sustainable Design leaders group where he would take over the room with his presence in a good way - asking challenging questions, sharing his humor and endless energy and being the life of the party. He was a critical part of the COTE AG when I chaired, always challenging us to be better. His lectures, books, articles, wonderful tweets tell even more of the Lance Hosey story. My favorite Lance memory is when I hosted the SDL summer gathering on a hot, humid evening at my house in St. Louis. There was lots of food, beer and good times and towards the end of the evening Lance turned to me and said “I love it here, will you adopt me?” The answer of course was and always will be YES! Somehow Lance’s last role as Chief Impact Officer at HMC seems the most apt. He has had and will continue to have an impact on our work. So let’s get it done! (Mary Ann Lazarus) ___________
I met Lance sometime between 2001 and 2006, when I was a senior editor at Architectural Record in New York covering technology and green building. Maybe I interviewed him for a story, maybe he sent us an essay he hoped we’d publish, maybe he and I met as co-panelists at an AIA convention? All of these? I can’t remember. He struck me as a brilliant, serious, buttoned-up type when I first met him (in a good way), but in short order revealed himself to be the visionary, shoot-from-the-hip, and funny man that we all miss so much already. In 2006 or 2007 he and I and a young architect friend of his (Catriona?) co-hosted a pilot episode for a TV show that never got picked up. It was called “Your Green Home,” produced by a ferociously upbeat and energetic British woman named Pip Gilmour. Again I have no idea how this opportunity presented itself to him/me/us. We filmed at the home of his friends, the architects Kevin and Carrie Meinburg Burke in (I think?) Charlottesville, VA, who were so gracious to all of us. He and I had to do many repeat takes because we’d bust up laughing halfway through page one of a two-page script. At one point Pip the Producer suggested that he pronounce his name like “Glance” because that would make the lead “L” in his name sound clearer on audio. From that moment on he was Glance to me, and thus began a years-long joke that made us laugh every time we talked about it. I’ll have to look for the old pics/CD of the pilot. The last time I saw him was maybe 2015 or 2016, when we met for drinks in downtown LA at a hotel rooftop bar. It was during his first go-around of living in San Diego with Kate. We compared notes on our careers, talked about California, architecture, politics, our spouses, food, mass transit, cocktails, TV, basically everything. For years we’ve been regular “likers” and commenters on each others’ Facebook and Twitter posts but didn’t see each other much, despite promises to meet up into LA or SD sometime. Life intervened; Covid intervened. Just two days ago I’d made a note to ping him this week to make plans, finally. And now this terrible news. I’m heartbroken that he’s gone. Angry that I put off making plans with
him. And most of all angry that he was taken too soon, that he didn’t get to enjoy more of the life that he was living to the fullest with his beloved Kate, whom I still hope to meet someday. Apologies for the long note; this one hit me hard. Keep shining, Glance. You live on in our hearts. (Deb Snoonian Glenn) ___________ Seems only fitting to tag on to the tail of Deb’s post…. I first met Lance during my undergraduate studies in architecture at UVA. 09/11 came and went, and due to the resultant overwhelming stagnation of the economy and complete pause on hiring recent grads, I went straight through to continue with my master’s degree there; I then asked Lance to be one of my two advisors for my graduate thesis 2003-2004. I had picked an atypical subject that didn’t fit neatly (really at all) into a more traditional capital “A” architectural thesis…. mine was more of a mash-up of urban planning, transportation infrastructure, and landscape architecture. Lance had my back on this every step of the way, reassuring me that it was ok and indeed best to pursue what I was interested in, regardless of how fringe it seemed. And when I decided to pursue an alternative career in construction upon graduation, he had my back then too. Our very first formative interactions were founded on his advocacy for women and challenging the establishment. We kept in touch as I began my career, and Lance graciously pulled me into the fold on numerous cool opportunities I wouldn’t have had a chance to have otherwise; meeting the indomitable Kira Gould (who has since become a dear friend), joining the 2006 AIA COTE, participating in his and Kira’s Women in Green book, and the TV series pilot filming for “Your Green Home” which Deb mentioned above. At the time Lance was driving a teeny tiny Smartcar, and Pip worked that into the arrival scene on a sopping wet rainy day with Lance, Deb, and I arriving at our “client’s” house by cheerily popping out of the car with umbrellas like clowns from a clown car. I got the trunk seat and Lance thought that was so hilarious.
Lance’s spirit burned like a rare element in chemistry class whose mysterious flame color was mesmerizing, pulling you along on his meandering journey of curiosity and wonder. Thank you for every moment, Lance, and for fueling me with courage to go against the grain. You were a gem of a human being. I will miss him dearly. (Catriona Winter) ___________ This news was a gut-punch. I can’t believe he’s gone. I met Lance when he lectured for our newly-founded USGBC chapter in Dallas, about 20 years ago. As others have said, he first came off as very knowledgeable, scholarly and serious, but at the dinner for the board he (of course) revealed his outrageous humor and exceedingly sly wit, as well as his rich taste for absurdity. We became friends and would connect at life milestones, in random cities. One or the other of us would be facing a job reckoning and need a sounding board and/or a shoulder...or at least a wellcrafted cocktail. His sound council made me see things in a different light, and question assumptions about what I thought were limitations. And he always, always made me laugh. I remember when he told me that he was getting married, that he had found this amazing woman, and that she, somehow, found him tolerable (his words!). As he talked about her, he was positively giddy. It was only when I met her that I realized he wasn’t exaggerating...she was that wonderful! My heart goes out to his family, and especially to Kate. I will miss him profoundly. (Betsy del Monte) ___________
I am not processing this well at all. It is surreal to think he is gone. I am not sure what I can say that has not already been said or write that would be worthy of him reading! I met Lance when he first attended the Architect + Design Sustainability (A+D S) Leadership Summit in either 2012 or 2013. The summit had been occurring annually since 2008. He was a dangerous combination of witty and wise, and an incredibly welcome new force and voice in the group. At the close of the Summit Nadav Malin asked us what we were going to do on Monday. I answered that I would be reading Lance’s book, The Shape of Green, which I had just learned of. I picked it up and could not put it down. It swept me off my feet. I looked in the book today to see if I had ever managed to get Lance to sign it, I never did, but instead, I found that I had written inside that “It’s rare that I have read a book in which I find myself wanting to quote the whole thing,” in August of 2014. I tried to get everyone in my office to read it. Fast forward to the A+D S Leadership Summit in Chicago 2016, I was in a cab on my way home after the opening night reception when I was surprised to find an email from our HR department with Lance’s resume attached! The next day at the Summit I told him that we need to talk. He was surprised that the headhunter was working so fast and I was surprised he wanted to work with us. I was thrilled later when he did join HED, albeit briefly. He saw in us a future which we could not see ourselves. One might say architects always visualize a better future but Lance did so more brilliantly and with a broader view. “Advancing Your World” was our vision statement since 2009, and our guiding principles were Design Excellence, Critical Thinking and Integrated Design. Lance led our Design Excellence team for over a year and he helped us make these ideals actionable. One is never sure what one’s impact will be, and change happens slowly. I was planning to tell him the next time I saw him that, in case he wasn’t sure or thought we weren’t listening, he had made a difference for us.
We all wanted more time with Lance. I will end here by quoting him. “No man is an island-at 70% water, he is more like an archipelago, a sandbar of skin ringing an internal tidal pool. You are a messy mass of hot and wet, stuffed into a beautiful bag of bones and the pores of the skin constantly open and close to let out heat and sweat. But your body doesn’t stop at your skin. The difference between your internal temperature and the air around you wraps you in a blanket of warmth – your aura, from the Greek word for breath, is the atmosphere of your body’s earth. Somewhere inside this thick gradient of heat – up to a meter deep – is, thermally, where you fade into the world.” -The Shape of Green (Susan King) ___________ This is heartbreaking news. Lance was ‘larger than life,’ a real inspiration to me. I assign a chapter of “The Shape of Green” in a class I teach, and I always get comments at the end of the semester that it is always one of the students’ favorite readings. His impact will continue to reverberate… but gosh I will miss his perspective. Virtual hugs to you all. (Gwen Fuertes) ___________ Lance was a larger-than-life figure, well known throughout our firm for his never-ending enthusiasm for performance driven design and life in general. If you didn’t know the answer to Lance’s question about why PDD was important, you were on his list (FYI, the answer was “mumble, mumble, drive value, mumble mumble). He built an amazing green team here, was #1 in cultural fun, and truly helped the firm push above and beyond what we thought possible at that time. I still find copies of his books around the office while prepping moves and renos. He is and will always be remembered fondly (Jodi Williams, CRTKL DC) ___________
A few comments received from the note sent out to the DC & Baltimore: “Our paths crossed briefly during my original time at CRTKL and we’ve been social media friendly ever since. Please let me know if there is any way we can support his family at this time.” “RIP Lance, I worked with him on Net Zero tower project, very approachable person, very enthusiastic about sustainable and design.” “Send my love to Kate” “I miss that guy!” I cannot believe that Lance has passed on. I always appreciated his expertise. I am so happy that I was able to work with him briefly. He will be missed. (Rachelle Schoessler Lynn) ___________ Lance lives. His advocacy for women, his ventures into unsettled ideas helped me be brave. We argued. Laughed. Aligned and disagreed. Lance catalyzed change. I still admire you Lance and thank you for your humanity and insanity. Peace, and blessings. (Victor Olgyay) ___________ Lance was such a great force in our industry. He had such a presence. He had intention. And a wicked sharp intellect. And as I think about it, the presence of a bear that ya just wanted to hug. He will be missed and his force will continue with us all. (Gunnar Hubbard) ___________
This is just crushing, and so unexpected. I had to turn email off yesterday so as to not tear up every time one of these messages came through. Reading them last night was bittersweet. I had Nadav’s same preconceived ideas about Lance as co-author of Women in Green and was secretly glad that Kira was the one to interview me and not “the man”. I met him IRL in 2007 when collaborating on a project. We become instant friends (as has been true with so many of you) and I quickly realized that I shouldn’t have been so fast to judge him based on his gender. He brought so much insight to our movement and to me personally that it’s awfully hard to imagine a path forward in his absence. Lance was always seeking out the lever – the inflection point where we could change the direction of large AE firms. As others have said, he truly felt that he had found his home at HMC. He had recently shared news of a big project win and was practically giddy. In addition to the stealth Islandwood wine, I will forever remember him as a master or ordering amazing fancy cocktails while spreading his wisdom, humor and big belly laugh over a post-conference happy hour. My heart goes out to Kate and the rest of the Hosey crew. (Mara Baum) If you have sensed a disturbance in the force recently, the world lost a visionary force of nature. Lance Hosey abruptly left this earthly plane last week, leaving a giant hole in the Sustainability community. I owe him a lot. Most of all I’ll miss 1) talking with him about our experiences writing books while in residency at Lake Como, and 2) his wackadoodle wit. Godspeed sweet prince. (Lucia Athens) ___________
I never met a better guy to have an argument with. I liked that Lance was really smart and un-embarrassed to be well-spoken. And that he liked collecting and plotting data, even if he and I disagreed about what conclusions could be drawn from his hopeful least-squares fit of the data. He had a genuine delight in picking up ideas, rolling them over in his hand, and liked even better when he set them the wrong way up on the table as if to say “It makes more sense when you look at it upside down.” My fondest memory was sitting in a gathering of sustainable design leaders in an (of course) windowless amphitheater. I’d only met Lance once before and found him a bit intimidating. I made one of my oddball counterintuitive observations to the group when a booming voice from the other side of the amphitheater intoned “Who let him in here?”. I looked over to see that it was Lance who said that; he looked my way for a split second, winked, and then resumed a placid neutral facial expression. Later, we worked together on the AIA COTE Advisory Group to reinvent the COTE Top Ten Measures, preparing them for their eventual transformation into the Framework for Design Excellence now adopted by the AIA membership as the basis for practice and awards. It was Lance who was not afraid to show the data that so many award-winning projects were quite expensive, and that if we wanted beautiful sustainable design to become the norm, we would have to report and honor affordability; that’s the origin story of “Design for Economy” as one of the ten measures of design excellence. At times, I could become exasperated by his never-ending pursuit of some grand unified field theory of better design. He was obsessed with getting the wording just right, the icon just so. For Lance, words mattered, images mattered, and people mattered. He took the world very seriously and himself not seriously at all. (Z Smith) ___________
Very sad news. I generally think of the people in our group as young at heart and full of life - without entertaining the possibility that one of us could be living our last day. I didn’t know Lance well and often found him intimidating - but in a good way. For me that usually meant that he held a perspective on a topic that I didn’t yet fully understand. He would often present his point of view with such confidence that I wanted to explore the topic deeper to see what it meant for me and my work. The relationship between sustainability and beauty was one of the big ones for me. He understood the power of effective communication and knew how to bring important topics into the mainstream sustainability conversation. A larger-than-life instigator! That I will miss. (Brian Feagans) ___________ I just met him on Thursday night at the HMC/RGA Mixer event in Sacramento. He was very friendly and open, which wasn’t what I expected from a corporate bigwig so it was a very pleasant surprise. He told me that he’d had the best dumplings in his life for dinner and was working the room like a champ. That was the last full day of his life, and he seemed to be enjoying every minute of it. (Kris Livingston) ___________ Lance could turn any word into an adjective or verb and do it with sufficient conviction and joy to make it contagious. Plouf — a restaurant in SF where he, Kira, and I had a raucous dinner more than once — became part of our hellos (“Rattner! Plouf!”), salutations (“Ploufly”), and the descriptor of choice (“I totally Ploufed it.”). Lance sparkled. The way he could find humor in the mundane and complexity in things overlooked always inspired me. We hadn’t spoken in years, but like so many people here in his orbit, he’s indelibly etched on my heart. May we all be a little extra Lance-like on September 11th, in his honor. (Beth Rattner) ___________
Reading these wonderful, poignant, funny and heartwarming tributes compels me to share a small family story. My mother (1924-2018) adored her grandson-in-law Lance - and she was hard to win over. A natural editor, she quickly found an ally in this erudite individual who was marrying her granddaughter. She showed unusual eagerness to please (it usually was SHE who commanded that) when she asked him what kinds of “things” he liked, and he craftily replied “Oh, just rusty old things.” From then on, she collected old hinges, tools, nails, scraps of iron for Lance and personally awarded them when she could. He proudly lined them up on his windowsill in Charlottesville, looking forward to their next critical discussion of proper grammar, punctuation, sentence structure etc, etc, of tomes they’d both read. Affectionately known as “Miss Ann” to all of her family and a few friends, she had no trouble forming a bond with Lance. Early on, smitten with her moniker as well as her person, he said “I sure wish someone would call me ‘Mr. Lance,’” To us, he became Mr. Lance from that moment on.
The favorite family portrait of Miss Ann was taken at Kate’s and Lance’s wedding. Rarely was she seen happier than on that day. Thank you, Mr. Lance. Our tender hearts are hurting. What an honor and blessing you brought to our family - and we all love you. (Trish and Ron Higgins) ___________
I met Lance during the LEED Fellow award ceremony. We talked about sustainability and the future of our profession. I had no idea that we will be working on the design resilience efforts for the south-central region a few years later. Lance considered himself a designer, always in the look for beauty and optimization. Lance was an inspirational leader, great speaker, and friend! He was valuedriven, leading from a deep sense of purpose and responsibility to create positive change in the world. His vision and leadership helped move the architectural profession forward in resilience and sustainability. We’ll miss you, Lance. (Maria Perez) ___________ Lance Hosey – joyful instigator and a skillful communicator. I was forever thankful for his generosity of time and spirit. In 2014 Lance agreed to speak at GGLO which we followed by a book club on The Shape of Green – he fired everyone up! Strength of communication comes to mind when thinking of Lance… see the StrengthsFinder results from a 2014 SD Leader Workshop. Of note, Lance was one of the few in the minority ‘Influencer’ category and the only one with ‘Woo’ as a strength. Lance brought the humor (and wine… I recall our group’s covert trip for IslandWood happy hour). I recently shifted to teaching and regularly assign Lance’s TED Talk which receives overwhelming positive feedback from students. What a loss for our community, but his impact will continue through the power of his storytelling. My deepest condolences to Kate and the Hosey family. May your warm memories and our collegial remembrances bring you comfort in this difficult time. (Alicia Daniels Uhlig) ___________
I met Lance around 40 years ago at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston. We were close friends and shared most of our classes together. Until I met Lance, I had always considered myself one of the “smart kids.” Lance was on a different playing field. He was brilliant, talented, funny and interested in absolutely everything. He was also diligent about keeping in contact after we left school. When he went off to Columbia, he regularly sent letters that were always uplifting and ridiculous. Oh, how I wish I had saved them. He traveled often but was really good about calling to get us out for a visit when he was in town. I hate that we’ve missed so many opportunities lately. I always thought there would be more time. Lance, I love you dearly and I miss your face. (Christa Miller Simpson, HSPVA Class of 1983) ___________ So deeply sad and heartbroken that this bigger than life person who would light up a room in a nanosecond won’t be with us in that same way; though Lance left us his powerful words in his books and articles and so many memories that we individually and collectively experienced -- he challenged us, made us laugh, and always inspired us to do more. Sending love to Kate and his entire family. Will miss you so much. (Gail Vittori) ___________ I must confess that I was not bowled over by Lance. Not immediately. I come from a long line of smart mouthed bigshots. One more smartypants guy. Was always fun to drink with, though. Until I heard him talk for the second or third time. He was working his way through The Shape of Green, and I was completely knocked out. Somewhere in between D’Arcy Thompson’s Of Growth and Form, Gregory Bateson’s Steps to an Ecology of Mind, and super-serious design thought. Wow. I would not miss a chance to hang out. Now, we all have to miss those chances. Thank our lucky stars for the Sustainable Design Leaders. Thanks Lance! (Jim Newman) ___________
We only had Lance for a brief moment in time, but it transformed how we see the world and defined our place within it. Like so many others, I had the honor of having Lance as my mentor for the last year, and he was simply the best I’ve experienced. His tremendous intellect was only second to his humility and care for others. I will miss his quick wit and candid guidance. The impact he has made on our profession and our firm cannot be overstated. We are all better people for having known him, and the world is a better place as a result of his efforts. Our families have spent some great evenings around our backyard fire pit, and our 13-year-old son Carson would spend hours talking with Lance and Kate. We often joked that Carson and Lance seemed somehow related as they are both so “selfpossessed” as Lance would say. We all miss you Lance, and you will forever be in our memories. Thank you for being a great friend and colleague. (James Krueger) ___________ This is shocking news! I’m floored. I worked on two revisions of the COTE Top Ten metrics and measures with Lance. Our discussions about Top Ten were always engaging, enlightening, and entertaining. Lance was so insightful, and always kept design at the forefront of sustainable design. Like Nadav, I went back to the letter I wrote for his Fellowship nomination and was reminded of convention presentations we did together and how effortless it was for him. No notes, just a flow of brilliant ideas, evidence of his mastery of the material. I will miss that, as well as his sense of humor, his tireless wrangling of a point, and his willingness to take any conversation off on a weird and amusing trajectory. (Henry Siegel) ___________
What I love about this industry is what makes this even harder. The people we work with aren’t co-workers — we are visionaries that share a common dream. We see potential and opportunity when others see empty space. We see redemption and a second chance when others see a tired, old structure. We shape skylines, define cultures. Make spaces that heal and inspire. Our job is to think about tomorrow. So, you never think that the voice encouraging, mentoring, and supporting you won’t be there. But that is for nearly all of the designers I deal with; Lance was all that on steroids. Personally, Lance and I shared a freaky parallel path. Moving from San Diego to Austin and back to SoCal again. We also started at HMC in the same month. We were seeking a home to kick-ass, take names, and change the world, like a band of superhero architects. The sense of humor was a bonus. For the last year, I’ve been starting my workday with Lance. Typically followed by shaking my head and warning that 7:30 was too early to “go full Hosey.” I needed more coffee for that. But I secretly encouraged it. The last IM exchange involved sharing pictures of squirrels and ZZ Top’s Frank Beard (who doesn’t have a beard, by the way) — two long stories, but that was what talking to Lance was like. A verbal rollercoaster. His love for life was reflected in all he did, but especially the way he communicated — all the detail he could possibly fit, all at warp speed. I hope to act as he did. Lead as he did. Inspire and aspire as he did. But I want to make someone else feel as capable, confident, and creative as he made me feel. His legacy of positive impact will live on because we will ensure that it does. But making someone full-on belly laugh with a bad pun will be the true mark of success. (Kelly Morrison) ___________
When Jen Murrill called to tell me this news, it was and is just so surreal that I still haven’t been able to process it enough to cry the proper amount. I just can’t wrap my head around it. Reading through all the comments and memories really brings to light what an epic force Lance was professionally, and what an impact he made on everyone he worked with far and wide. I too spent 3 or so years working directly with/for him at McDonough a few moons ago, but I will not miss Lance, the architect (even though that vacuum is huge). I will miss Lance, my friend. I will miss singing Lawrence Welk styled versions of whatever song (or day of the week) came to mind while driving to teach first year design students at UVa. I will miss his relentless cheersing after the 1st through 14th beers. I will miss him telling the same damn stories for 20 years. I will miss how much he liked that I stole some of those stories and embellished them to a more absurd product (Vinoly’s Temper Tantrum, Crockett DuBose’s Gym Class), and how much he liked some of mine (Hao Liu Cramps up During Final Jury), and how much we both enjoyed fabricating ridiculous back stories to the otherwise mundane (our architect friends in Racine). Lance came to Houston for my wedding. Lance joined me for a drink in the middle of the night in New Orleans. Lance grabbed breakfast with me in Austin. Lance played the sax. Lance hugged. Lance cared. It pains me what a poor job I did in being a friend when Lance and Kate briefly lived in Austin, and how Covid crushed that existence a bit. We were able to have an awesome dinner with Lance and Kate for his birthday in 2019, at which we just clicked right back into the usual dog and cat stories. Then we had an even awesomer repeat dinner with us four, and Jen and Justin followed by Led Zeppelin, Madonna, and Al Green, plus a thousand bottles of wine at my house till 2 or 3am, a week or so before shutdown. He would’ve kept going had we not shuffled everyone out! That’s the last I physically saw my friend Lancito, but I can hear him. Kate, I am SO sorry. Words don’t serve right now. (Michael Stouse) ___________
Dear Lance, Thank you. Thank you for being such an incredible human. I have so many fond memories of you… As a mentor and teacher of design + detail at McDonough, for my first ~3yrs or so out of college, you taught me so much about architecture, detailing, leading others, etc… but even more about authentic expression. With your open questions, endless wit, and willingness to be an open ear offering consistent support, I always knew I could count on you to tell it like it was. The countless lunches at MonoLoco + The Guad, answering allllll the round table surveys as you got to know all of us who worked with you then… and allllll bowls of liquid cheese. The happy hours at Rapture, the coffees at Higher Grounds, and of course the bee in your Birkenstock, flying high in front of the Bank of America as you tried to kick it away. I had never laughed so hard in my life. Singing with you at the WMP holiday party one year, with you on sax and Doug on the snares. The hilarious impressions you and Michael perfected (and altered) over the years of people I had never met, but the mere mention of could bring me to laughing tears. All the jazz hands. The physical + emotional support you shared when I chose to leave CVille, helping Michelle, Michael and the gang pack my moving van for mere pizza and beer, sneaking in the bird clock for me to find upon my arrival in Austin a week later. I knew I was loved and would be missed. Staying in touch for more than 20 years… always a good laugh over a cold drink, cheeks hurting, reminiscing on the good ol’ days when we were all together every day. I don’t think any of our career experiences were ever so rich as they were then. It was priceless to work and play with great friends daily, and I’m so grateful for all of it.
Thank you for being vulnerable with me, and for letting me be so with you. When your mom passed; when I chose to leave a toxic relationship (and even when I didn’t); when I questioned some major decisions in my life… we were always real with each other. When you shared with me some of your more challenging times years after the fact, trusting me not to judge; and when you followed up with me years after some of my most challenging times to see how I was really faring. Thank you. When you met and fell in love with Kate and you lit up like I had never seen before! (I always felt privileged that you showed us her ring before you proposed) When we came to visit you in CVille and Burke was a baby, we put one of his toys in your pocket to remind you not to slam the door on the way out to the grill… and when you accidentally slammed it anyway. When we got to visit you and Kate in DC and ate at that lovely moody place at Dupont Circle, and you shared one of your favorite spots with us. When you moved back to Austin and came over to be with my family and Atlee pulled her tooth. When, over a year later, you came over again and played her piano (I’m so glad I captured a few measures on video) When we got to share that late night with you guys at Michael + Kelly’s, reliving all the old stories yet again… they never got old. Your relentless cheers never got old. Your endless jazz hands never got old. Your hilarious facial expressions, the way you sang Tuesday, your obtuse (to me) musical references, never got old. And the twinkle in your eye when you saw, thought about, mentioned Kate, NEVER got old… in fact, it was truly amazing to witness your adoration for her. That is love. The last time I saw you was in my backyard on July 18, 2020, enjoying a nice rose poolside just before you guys moved back to San Diego. I didn’t get to hug you when you left (eff you, COVID). The last Facebook message we shared referenced the only time in my life I’ve ever snuck into a 2nd movie, way back in ~2000 when we were in San Fran on a work trip. Crouching Tiger was by far the better of the two. And the last text message we shared
contains a picture of the two of us enjoying a cocktail in Austin from 2 years prior, my caption reading “Two years ago!?”... and your reply, simply a big red heart. You’ve always had a huge heart, Lance, with so much love for design and for those of us you chose to let into your inner circle. I’m so grateful to have been included in your orbit for so many years. Thank you for that. I’ve read all the wonderful, heartfelt tributes and professional accolades shared… you were loved and respected by so many. You have literally shaped lives with your vision, your words, your presence. I hope I can someday be a mentor to someone the way you were for me. What a legacy to leave. But even more, I hope I can be a friend the way you’ve been for me. You truly have been a gift in my life. Thank you for that. My heart goes out to all of us who had the chance to really know and love you, but especially to Kate. You guys were magical together… Kate, I am so, so sorry. Lance, I love you, my dear friend. I’ll miss you terribly. And I’ll see you later. Cheers! (Jen (Cline) Murrill)
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I’m still struggling to comprehend the magnitude of losing Lance. He was an effervescent force of energy. His writing and influence on design and equity will be with us for years to come. I’ll miss his vast intellect, baritone voice, whip-smart critiques, infectious enthusiasm, goofy tangents, crushing hugs, and our epic Bombay Martini-infused dinner conversations. (Lance despised Bombay Sapphire) I met Lance at Yale in 1988. He already had such a solid grasp on the English language—and used it so effectively in his communications— that he intimidated the shit out of me. He was the editor of Rap Sheets, a School of Architecture publication, and once asked if I’d be interested in contributing. Me?? My writings could have brought down the whole affair, but I overcame my fear because of Lance. He eventually became one of the most influential and poignant writers and speakers of our time. While I’d fallen out of touch with him during the ‘90s, we began seeing each other at events and conferences about 20 years ago. As our project types and interests converged, our conversations grew. Lance believed that even slightly moving the needle on environmental awareness within larger organizations would have far greater impact than fewer, isolated project triumphs. We were forever trying to lure each other to each other’s firm in the hopes of making them better places and finally getting the chance to collaborate. Sadly, that never came to pass. Lance could argue a point like no one else. Everything I questioned about design became crystal clear when conversing with Lance. Contemplating or even repeating something he said left me feeling like Tim Taylor, the star of Home Improvement, clumsily attempting to recap the wisdom of his over-the-fence-philosopher/neighbor, Wilson. It never had quite the same impact as Lance, with his intonations, high pitch emphasis, and hand gesturing. For someone of his stature, Lance lacked the arrogance so prevalent in our industry. He spoke clearly, with conviction, peppering his points with pop
culture tangents, and he made vital information so much more accessible to his audience. Lance was seriously funny. He made us laugh to the point of soreness — I’m convinced he could have had an equally successful career in stand-up comedy. And he was unequivocal: Great design is sustainable in the broadest sense, and the best design comes from rallying around an overarching vision and set of goals. The quality of the work can only be accurately measured by how well it achieves those goals. Otherwise, it always comes back to personal preferences. In this excerpt from grad school pondering beauty in architecture, Lance sets up a strong argument against the superficial, already questioning and pushing for an alternative future: I’m asked to produce something which is beautiful, then I’m being asked to determine what beauty is. Yet, I for one am not willing to turn my daily surroundings over to someone else’s notions about what “looks good,” and as an architect I don’t want others trusting me to please them, to make places everyone will “like.” It seems that beauty is too often a means of escape—if things look good, then they probably are good. I have no desire to promote something like that. I don’t want people’s everyday preoccupations to disappear for a while when they look at what I’ve done. I want buildings to rattle us now and then, to shake us up, so that in dealing with our disorientation we become hyper aware of ourselves, our views and our surroundings. It might be the ultimate compliment to the architect if someone were to walk up to a building and say, “I don’t feel well.” — Lance Hosey, Yale School of Architecture, Rap Sheets, The Artifice of Necessity: A Skeptical View of Buildings and Beauty, Volume Three, Number One, 13 October 1988 Even though Lance Hosey had far more societal contributions left to make, our profession is a better place for the views he left us. Thank you, Lance. We’ll miss you, buddy. (Marc L’Italien) ___________
The first significant time I spent with Lance was in Houston, I think just after he had left McDonough + Partners. We met at a coffee shop. It was raining hard and the roads were covered in about four inches of water— leading to discussions about infrastructure and resilience (though perhaps we weren’t yet using that term). Lance was always engaging, inquisitive, insightful, funny. He will be sorely missed! (Alex Wilson) ___________ OMG. LanceHosey has died. I had the pleasure of editing his columns at Architectmag years ago & enjoyed the back-&-forth about word choices & movies as metaphors (he was a big film buff). RIP, Lance. Thanks for all you did for sustainable architecture. (Braulio Agnese, via Twitter) ___________ Gutted to learn of the premature passing of a great leader in the architecture world, Lance Hosey. Lance had a great smile, and it was always an energy boost to run into him at events. Let’s all carry his work forward. (Jess Zimbabwe, via Twitter) ___________ Lance Hosey wrote in the Shape of Green that you can’t have sustainability without beauty.” If it’s not beautiful, it’s not sustainable. Aesthetic attraction is not a superficial concern, it’s an environmental imperative. Beauty could save the planet.” He will be missed. (Lloyd Alter, via Twitter) ___________ My brilliant, hilarious friend is gone and I will miss him forever. (Marijean Oldham, via Twitter) ___________
Tough, tough news. His voice and spirit will be sorely missed. (Cameron Sinclair, via Twitter) ___________ We are heartbroken by the sudden death of @LanceHosey, a leader and inspiration in the field of sustainable architecture and design. He will be deeply missed. (BuildingGreen, via Twitter) ___________ Such a terrible loss. We were colleagues for all of 5 hrs before he invited me out for martinis and shop talk. I barely made it to the office the next day. A sharp wit and brilliant visionary. Rest easy, Lance. (Justin Wolf, via Twitter) ___________ I am shocked and saddened to hear this. Ever since Lance was a student of mine I’ve admired his intelligence, his determination and his passion. We have all learned from him. (Paul Goldberger, via Twitter) ___________ Joining with countless others in mourning the loss of @LanceHosey, a dear friend I was privileged to know. He was a visionary architect and brilliant thinker with a heart of gold. http://bit.ly/3kP50H9 #Architect (David Goldsmith, via Twitter) ___________ The sustainability movement mourns the passing of Lance Hosey, a tireless champion who saw a greener future for architecture. In addition to his role as chief impact officer of HMC Hosey was the author of numerous books and articles on sustainable design. (Metropolis Magazine, via Twitter) ___________
We lost a profound voice in the field of sustainable design last week. Lance Hosey’s belief that beautiful buildings and sustainable buildings should be one and the same changed the design industry for the better. We will miss him dearly. (Lake Flato Architects, via Twitter) ___________ This is sad news. We used this quote from Lance Hosey in the original proposal pack for Veridian: “Sustainability should have style, not become a style.”Beauty is a precondition to sustainability.” World is more beautiful having hosted life of Lance Hosey. He’ll be missed. (Veridian County Farm, via Twitter) ___________ I had the honor of having Lance as my mentor during the past five months at HMC. I met him in person for the first and last time at the HMC/RGA Mixer event in Sacramento on Thursday, August 26, 2021. He was full of energy, jokes, and ideas. I never thought it would be the last time we meet and never thought those hours would be the last hours of his life. I’ve been deeply saddened and shocked. May his soul rest in peace. May we treasure his memory by carrying on his efforts towards achieving a sustainable environment. My thoughts and prayers go out to his wife and the rest of the family. (Maryam Hamidpour) ___________ I’m still stunned by the unexpected passing of my friend Lance Hosey. He has been an important inspiration and mentor to me and so many others. I already miss his candor, his goofy jokes, and how generous he was with his time — I never took for granted that despite what a busy and sought-after person he was, he always made time to answer my questions quickly. We are all devastated by this loss and will double down on our sustainable design efforts to honor your memory. (Heather Holdridge, via LinkedIn) ___________
I am heartbroken to learn of the passing of Lance Hosey, a brilliant and passionate friend and collaborator in our movement. I heard from Lance just weeks ago, congratulating me on my new role and offering to help evolve the Beauty Petal of the Living Building Challenge. It was just like Lance to offer his thoughtful presence to the strategic challenges of our industry — he brought that deep consideration and urgency to everything he did. He was always looking for the most effective place to leverage change, and he found those roles in his writings and his work at William McDonough + Partners, HMC Architects, RTKL and Perkins Eastman. He was a thoughtful and supportive collaborator to Kira Gould in their book, Women in Green, that has served as an inspiration for so many of us. I’m going to miss him. (Lindsay Baker, via LinkedIn) ___________ This is just incredibly sad. I hadn’t talked to Lance in a while but counted on his sharp wit and provocative view in his writing to keep up. In our WM+P days I asked him (and Kira Gould) to sign my copy of Women in Green…he thought it was funny, perhaps underestimating his influence in the world. It was substantial, and enduring, I am sure. (Jeffrey Till, via LinkedIn) ___________ I am saddened this morning to learn about the passing of Lance Hosey. His article The Ethics of Brick brought home for me the social impact of architecture and design. (Lenna Lockwood, via LinkedIn) ___________ “reliably hilarious” is a t-shirt i am going to miss not being able to see him wear — but not as much as i’ll miss not seeing him laugh about it. heartbroken about this loss. (Brendan Owens, via LinkedIn) ___________
Sad to hear this news — I knew Lance and was last with him at a Hilton Foundation visioning session where he shared big picture ideas and was a natural lead in the conversation. He was a bright star in our green building world and will be missed! (Drew Shula, via LinkedIn) ___________ “And when our lives are over, those who joined us on the path to fulfillment will keep going without us and inspire others to join them too.” - Simon Sinek, Infinite Game. Lance Hosey entered the infinite and fulfilling game of sustainability long before I joined and was someone whose audacity, passion, and tenaciousness I admired and followed. May we carry on the torch without him and bring others along with us as we do. (Jill Kurtz, via LInkedIn) ___________ I am stunned by Lance’s passing. Maybe it’s because he seemed larger than life. Maybe it’s because he gave so much and had so much to give. Though we missed each other at WM+P, we struck up an easy friendship through the SDL group and mutual friends. He was a bit of a tease and we flirted with the idea of working together multiple times over the years. It’s rare that incredible talent, a towering intellect, a joyful sense of humor, and the voice of a cartoon superhero (Captain Underpants?) come in a single package. Now that I think about it, his only known weakness was male pattern baldness, but he even made that work. Lance will be remembered as a good friend to many and a change agent that had a profound impact on the green building movement. I’m grateful for the time I spent in his presence and will miss him very much. Kate, the two of you were an inspiration as a couple and it was clear that he loved you deeply. We are all thinking about you and channeling some Lance love energy your way. (Rob Winstead) ___________
I have to admit, I’ve been holding off on reading this thread – waiting until I had the emotional strength to deal with it. Not sure I ever will, so I dove in. A week ago when I found out of Lance’s passing, I had just given birth to my second daughter earlier that morning – talk about an emotional roller coaster. Lance would have asked me if I named her “Lancina” or something ridiculous like that. I didn’t, by the way. I’ve been reading your comments in bits and pieces since then, and it has been hard, but incredibly helpful for me to process my emotions. As I read through, many things came up consistently – his laugh, his love of cocktails, his larger-than-life personality, his impressive ability to deliver a compelling message — but the one I’d like to touch on more is his mentorship. I had the privilege of working directly with Lance early in my career, and I’m not sure I’ll ever have a better mentor or boss. Every day I worked with him, I was excited to get out of bed in the morning. The obstacles were big, but Lance inspired me every day to do my best, while allowing me the complete freedom to figure out what that “best” was. In a large organization, he gave our team the freedom and the time to be creative and to have fun with our work, without having to worry about meeting billability targets or showcasing an ROI for ourselves. That freedom allowed me to grow into who I am today, gave me the energy to keep at this sometimes-challenging job that we have as sustainability leaders, and honestly, I could use more of that growing time. Lance taught me how to craft a compelling message, how to capture an audience, that it’s not only okay to repeat yourself, it’s necessary. He taught me to not feel self-conscious about my lack of experience — that what architecture needs is someone who can come in with a fresh perspective to shake things up — and that experience can sometimes become a burden instead of a benefit. One time I was helping Lance pull together a firmwide presentation that he was going to give. I worked with him on it for WEEKS and was getting increasingly frustrated because after version 85 of this presentation he kept
changing his mind and going back to content we had earlier on. It would have been way more efficient for him to compile the presentation himself, and way less frustrating for me. BUT now when I compile important presentations, I find myself spending a lot of time crafting the right message, the one that is going to get people’s attention and initiate action. I find myself thinking like Hosey. I’m not sure it was intentional like Mr. Miyagi, but it worked. After Lance left Perkins Eastman, we’ve kept in touch regularly. I’ll miss having him as a sounding board, and a cheerleader. I’m sad for the huge loss for the industry and keep thinking about what he had left to contribute, but emboldened to step up. A few have mentioned how he was not afraid to put himself out there — and I think this post speaks to that: https://www. huffpost.com/entry/stop-building-now_b_4194532. You’ll notice they took the comments section down, because there was A LOT of backlash from architects who were not okay with Lance’s “modest proposal” to stop building altogether. One of my favorite things to do was scour through the negative comments with Lance — and I remember one in particular that called him a psychopathic midget. Nothing else, no other arguments, just called him a psychopathic midget. That was the name of his college band, by the way :) That time we made Hosey a beefeater hat so he could convince the bartender at the bar under our office to carry his favorite Beefeater Gin :) I convinced Lance to get back into biking in DC for his commute, after he complained about the metro for the umpteenth time. I gave him one rule — never bike if there is the potential for ice on the road. One morning he did, hit a patch of ice, got taken to the hospital in an ambulance, and he sent me this picture saying he didn’t listen to my one rule :)
We developed a bat signal to send to Hosey when it was time to meet in “Conference Room B” aka the bar downstairs for happy hour :) (Heather Jauregui) ___________ Lance Hosey was a bright light and a force for good. He graciously offered his wisdom as I was winding down and closing my firm and got to know him better over the last several months.... He will be missed. My heart is breaking for Kate, his wife and best friend. Rest easy my friend. (Kyle Pickett, via Facebook) ___________
Lance Hosey was not only a friend, but an article that he wrote in 2005 changed the trajectory of my career. “The Ethics of Brick” in Metropolis, written by Lance, sparked the idea for SEED when I worked for GSA with R. Steven Lewis, who encouraged me to read the article. That experience was monumental and I am forever grateful to Lance for being such a visionary and an inspiration. He was not only brilliant, but he was a really nice guy. The design community is at a major loss right now. My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends. Thank you, Lance. (Kimberly Dowdell, via Facebook) ___________ Lance Hosey, oh wow. Will never get over losing people so young, so suddenly. I can’t say I knew Lance as well as many of you friends, but from Charlottesville back in the day, early green pioneers, until now, Lance has been a big force in the green movement, and in any room. Also, how great is it to watch your friend fall in love?!?! That alone! Kate Higgins Hosey I ache for you, man did that man love you!!!! It was a true privilege to witness your courtship. In 2008, talking with me about his book with Kira Gould, Lance Hosey asks “How do you answer the question, “How do we love more?” One thing I learned, being a particularly left-brained guy, is that we don’t need to pin down concepts such as “sustainability” – in fact, we shouldn’t even try. The most brilliant thing anyone says in this book is that this word’s openness is a great advantage because it allows itself to be filled with meaning as our intelligence evolves.” Damn, friends, this message, again. Live boldly, love deeply, now. Like right now. (Katie Swenson, via Facebook) ___________
I stepped away from social media awhile ago to refocus and regain some much needed privacy. This break was extended a bit longer due to recent events that I would be remiss not to acknowledge. I share this as a means to help with the healing and honor the memory of person who was widely respected and deeply loved. On August 27th, Lance Hosey passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. Through his writing, his work, and his personal life, he positively impacted the lives of many, as well as future generations who will continue to benefit from his contributions to the world of architecture and sustainability. You can read more about his life and work here by reading his obituary on his website in the comments. Lance was many things to many people. To me, he was my partner in puns, a fellow jokester, my jam sesh buddy, and a very very dear friend. My heart breaks for his family and friends, especially his wife, my friend, Kate Higgins Hosey, who lost a love far too soon. A very heartfelt thank you to all who have reached out. Please do not take it personally if I am slow to respond. We all grieve in different ways and my remaining energy is focused on those closest to Lance as we try to pick up the pieces and heal. (Asher Mac, via Facebook) ___________
My heartfelt condolences to Kate and family. Compared to so many, I came to the Lance party late. I got invited to an event in San Diego (2013 or 14?) where SDL’s were asked to invite their design counterparts from their respective firms to participate in a dialog about why there was still a divide between what was considered top design and sustainability. To be honest, when it was suggested that I attend, I wasn’t entirely sure which I was representing since I didn’t have an official SDL role in my firm. While I had been passionate about sustainability for years, this was the first time I got to sit at the “grown-up’s” table. Lance was a presenter as well as participant. There was a lot of talk about why we (the sustainability folks) couldn’t sell it, couldn’t convince clients it was important, couldn’t move the market. Of course, for Lance “sustainability is everything” — it is in every design decision, it’s in the proces, it’s about having a “measurable positive impact”. It is NOT something separate that you have to sell. He made it so obvious. The other interesting thing about this event was that organizers had all the participants take a Strengths Finder personality test before we arrived and our top 5 strengths were listed on our name cards at the tables. Lance was the only person in the room who had the strength of WOO — Win Others Over — yeah, no kidding! Of course, the evening of cocktails and wine was just as inspiring and way more entertaining than the day’s activities. Lance was welcoming and inclusive with newcomers. He listened as much as he shared. By the end of the event, I knew I wanted to work with this guy. So, at the next Greenbuild I pitched it to him to join the firm I was at, which desperately needed sustainability leadership, and surprisingly he said yes! I am ever so grateful for the impact he had on me — not just in what I learned, but who he introduced me to; people like the 3 fabulous ladies he brought with him. My older sister has always told me that if we are still alive that we haven’t yet learned what we came here to learn and we haven’t yet accomplished what we were put on this earth to accomplish. Lance, my friend, you did what you came here to do: You had a MEASURABLE POSITIVE IMPACT! Now it’s our turn, but you are greatly missed. (Jana Silsby) ___________
Ooohh Lance, Your laugh and puns got me every dang time at WM+P. You were fond of remember highlights of our friendship and discussing them with Erika and me at later occasions; here’s a few: You told me that my one fatal flaw is that I’m not too fond of avocados, and that was true at the time; tho I’ve grown to like them now, so I’m flawless, I wish I could tell you that. Another was when we visited for a Christmas party when Addie was very young. We handed you our coats, and following our lead, Addie (putting on airs) popped out her pacifier and in your words “walked by me like royalty, not making eye contact, and proceeded to survey the room to ensure the party was to her liking.” Another would be saying, “Getting on the phone with THE WHOLE country of China.” Lastly, our collective mastery of Bocce and ‘that f@#king pallino.’ You’ll be missed Major Lance. (Alex, Erika, and Addie Jack) ___________ Although I only knew Lance for a short time during his 14-month stint at HMC Architects, he left a lasting impression on my team and I here in San Diego. Lance and I had many conversations and were always strategically aligned in our vision for the growth of our office and our firm and became fast friends. Lance always seemed to make every decision by looking two steps ahead, like a champion chess player. He would always crack me up (and make me do some serious eye rolls) with his non-stop puns during meetings. Lance was a great motivator of people and always seemed to bring the best out of his collaborators, like a champion coach, or your favorite college professor. I admired the way Lance approached new projects and pursuits, by establishing a clear vision: we did this, because this results in that, which aligns with your values, goals, and budget. It seems simple when you put it that way, but most people want to complicate things, which makes you not see the forest through the trees. Lance, you will be deeply missed. I was looking forward to conquering San Diego with you...RIP, my friend…(Kyle Peterson) ___________
I have been deeply saddened by the news about Lance. Although I hadn’t seen him in a few years, I considered him a true friend. Lance and I worked together closely at William McDonough + Partners starting in 2007, where we collaborated on a number of projects including a vision for an ‘office building of the future’ and the UCSF Medical Center project in San Francisco. As one of our UCSF design partners said at the time about Lance, he’d never seen anyone give more convincing, understandable and passionate sustainable design presentations to client groups. With his booming voice, easy good nature, great sense of humor and deeply held convictions about the intersection of sustainability and design, Lance was a profound inspiration to me. And Lance was such a great, warm, fun guy to hang out with! I will miss him. (Matthew Winkelstein) ___________ I just don’t want to believe this is true hence the reason I have waited until today to write this. Plus, how do I not have a picture of Lance? So grateful you all have shared here, thank you! Per his lovely obituary, my new goal is to stop with the double spaces after periods. I love this because I have to be very focused on it and every time I retrain myself I think of Lance. I recall when Lance asked me to be one of his endorsers for LEED Fellow and I thought and probably said, “How can I write an endorsement letter for you since you are my mentor?!” I read through the endorsement and want to include it here even though it is long to demonstrate Lance’s level of dedication and commitment to service. Dear Lance’s Family, His Enormous Circle of Friends and All Women in Green, Each of our stories are different. For me, it started with a phone call. Lance conducted a phone interview with me for the book he was working on with Kira Gould, Women in Green. The name says it all. This was my story. This was so many other women’s stories! This would be the story for so many other women to follow. This
was the story to enlighten men as to why women in green is such a good idea. Lance and Kira were delivering that message. Lance was an Ambassador for Women in Green. He understood the impact we were having and the opportunity for us to bring about widespread change. I remember this phone call so well because it was the first time I realized how important it was that I make the most out of the position I was in. It was utterly empowering. Around that same time, Meredith Elbaum, Glenn Fischer, Nadav Malin and I were starting to gather a group of Sustainable Design Leaders in large architectural practices across the U.S. It was before we had social media networks at our fingertips, and we were literally coldcalling architecture practices asking them who their top “green” leaders were. We also had help from AIA Large Firm Roundtable members – Mary Ann Lazarus, Russell Perry and Paula McEvoy. We managed to assemble an incredible group of sustainable design leaders, and with the phenomenal leadership of Building Green, this network has become a strong source of change in the architectural world. My motivation was largely driven by Lance’s unconditional, authentic passion for what I was doing and what we (Women in Green and Sustainable Design Leaders) collectively could do to influence change from within our organizations. It is hard to consider the success of either group without Lance shining a spotlight on us. Thank you, Lance, for providing that spotlight – lit from 100% renewable, fossil fuel-free power. Human power. We will shine that spotlight on others and carry that power within each of us in honor of you. (Nellie Reid) ___________
My deepest condolences to Kate, his entire family and dear friends. One thing I will really miss is Lance’s humor, he was hilarious. I miss you, Lance. Here is just one aspect of all that he accomplished: Dear GBCI LEED Fellow Review Committee: DEDICATION TO DIVERSITY I first met Lance a decade ago, when he and Kira Gould began developing Women in Green. Lance has uncommon passion for promoting greater diversity in the industry, and he has been an outspoken advocate for creating more leadership opportunities for women in sustainable design. At the 2005 Greenbuild, he and Kira organized several discussions with industry leaders, and eventually they interviewed nearly 300 green building advocates, including many USGBC leaders. Gail Vittori, Joel Ann Todd, Rebecca Flora, Kath Williams, Christine Ervin, Rick Fedrizzi, David Gottfried, and many others are included in the book, which highlights the organization’s leadership and achievements. Lance and Kira took unpaid leaves from work to develop the book because they believed it could become a powerful way to bring more attention to the sustainability movement. EXEMPLARY SERVICE Since then, I have gotten to know Lance through many other channels, mostly volunteer work. Lance’s career has been exceptionally dedicated to service, volunteering thousands of hours to various organizations over the years. In 2012 I included him in my book, Becoming a Green Building Professional, as a terrific example of a passionate sustainable design leader committed to advocacy outside of everyday practice. MARKET LEADER For two years, we served together on the USGBC’s national Market
Advisory Committee (MAC) while I was Chair, and when he joined he immediately brought fresh insight about needs and trends in the marketplace, significantly helping us clarify our mission and effectiveness. Lance chaired MAC’s Retail sub-committee and coauthored (with me) a report advising the USGBC on how LEED can serve the retail market better. As Lance discovered in our research, total annual US retail sales are more than $4.5 trillion (27 percent of the GDP), so this is a gigantic market in which to promote change. However, retail has been a lagging market for LEED, accounting for only 12-13% of all LEED projects built to date. We conducted extensive interviews and surveys with 60 of world’s leading green retail advocates, and the lessons learned have given the USGBC a much clearer understanding of that market. Lance continues to work with the USGBC to develop a new research initiative to create a stronger business case for green retail. We hope the content of the report will become a special session at Greenbuild this year. PIONEER ADVISOR When I stepped down as Chair of MAC at the end of 2014, I recommended Lance as the new Chair. The LEED Steering Committee (LSC) approved his appointment before deciding to combine the MAC and the LEED Implementation Committee. As of this year, the LSC approved Lance as the first Chair of the newly combined group, the national LEED Advisory Committee (LAC), whose purpose is to provide expert feedback and insight on how the LEED rating system and related tools, resources, and programs affect the user experience and market uptake of LEED globally. The new committee brings together two dozen green building leaders, including seven LEED Fellows, and is one of only two primary global service committees (along with the Technical Committee) reporting to the LSC. As Chair, Lance also sits on the LSC, where he will serve as the
primary voice for market and implementation over the next two years. This is a significant period of transformation for LEED, since v4 will go into effect during this time, and I can think of no one better suited for this extraordinary leadership role. Lance’s eagerness to accept the role, a significant time commitment, attests to his commitment to service. DEFINE SOCIAL EQUITY At the invitation of Joel Ann Todd, former LEED Steering Committee Chair, Lance also helped form the USGBC’s Social Equity Working Group (SEWG), for which he wrote the definition of social equity and contributed extensively to the group’s work on the social equity pilot credits, focusing on equity in supply chains and community engagement. His 2005 essay, “The Ethics of Brick,” helped shaped the discussion years earlier, and that same year Lance was a founder of the non-profit SEED Network, whose standards now are including the new social equity pilot credits. For its groundbreaking work, the SEWG won the USGBC’s 2014 Malcolm Lewis IMPACT! Award. As of mid-February, the pilot credits have been adopted by 23 projects since being launched at Greenbuild 2014. This development honors the USGBC’s commitment to social equity and promises to be a significant step forward in implementing the organization’s strategic plan. RESEARCH ADVOCATE Recognizing Lance’s significant research and experience with material health, USGBC Vice President Chris Pyke has invited him to be a key presenter for many USGBC events on the topic, including “Materials Health: The Architect’s Evolving Role” (Spring, 2014) and the 2014 Building Materials Data Jam, the first of a long series of workshops on the subjects. BEYOND VISION
Outside the USGBC, Lance is a member of the Advisory Group of the AIA national Committee on the Environment (COTE) and has served as a primary author of COTE’s definition and measures of sustainable design, which the larger Institute adopted in its general sustainability plans. The AIA COTE Top Ten / Top Ten + Awards program recognizes exemplary and innovative, built projects that establish a standard of design excellence while integrating sustainable design strategies, demonstrating their benefits while educating and inspiring the profession and the public. In acknowledgement of the increasingly important role architects must play in helping to address the challenges of climate change, and in keeping with the Institute’s core values surrounding this issue, due to Lance’s revised Top Ten measures the submissions are expected to make every effort to comply with the goals of the AIA 2030 Commitment and provide actual performance data. The revised Top Ten measures have been used to guide and assess hundreds of projects submitted to the program, including nearly a hundred selected as Top Ten winners since then. In addition to dozens of other volunteer activities, Lance also serves on the board of directors of the Center of Maximum Potential Building Systems, the pioneering non-profit co-directed by Pliny Fisk and Gail Vittori. Lance is one of only two directors on the board who are not local to Austin. The fact that Chair of the GBCI Board would invite Lance to be an integral part of her organization speaks volumes for his passion and expertise. Please join me with the breadth of the building industry in recognizing Lance’s “above & beyond” commitment and service to sustainability with the honor of the LEED Fellow credential. (Holley Henderson) ___________
This is so hard. Our Yale class has lost an incredible voice and spirit in Lance. My deepest condolences to Kate and family. Lance was such a ball of energy that was impossible to contain, as evidenced in the impact he made in his significant global reach and to so many people. We had been trying to find a way to get together for so long but we never seemed to be in the same place at the same time. The one exception was when I went down to Charlottesville for a review when Lance was living there. The enduring memory I have is of squeezing myself into his Smart car and feeling like I had just wedged myself into a bullet with him at the trigger. Those of you who know me will understand the humorous vision of me getting into a Smart car, but somehow, getting in there with Lance seemed to be the best thing to do, while he expounded on what a great car it was as we careened through the streets. Of course, I had a blast. Lance and Constance and Doug are undoubtedly having a rip-roaring time somewhere out in the universe reorganizing everything to be glorious and Smart. (Robin Elmslie Osler) ___________ Lance and I had the great honor of receiving our AIA Fellowship award in the same class, and although we were all seated alphabetically (Montgomery… Hosey… not too close), we did get to celebrate together at the Fellows dinner afterward. Lance always turned every occasion into a celebration, and he was so much better at it than I am! Kate, a pleasure to meet you then and to share a little celebratory silliness. Lance was impossible not to love, and although it has been said by many others, larger than life. I appreciated his earnest passion for making things right, and for fighting for the future we all dream of having. Although we joked about his “white male”-ness he was a staunch advocate for women in the profession and a terrific ally to have. The contributions he made live on through his writing, but especially through his influence on all of us, and on the generation to follow. A larger-than-life presence, his will be sorely missed. (Margaret Montgomery) ___________
Jen Preston wrote to me, about Lance’s death: You have lost a thing that is very hard to find: another person who gets how you think and doesn’t seek to take it away but wants to add to it so it grows big and wide. That captures the personal side of this, and how I am attempting to process the unimaginable reality (Kate’s perfect words!) of him not being with us all anymore. I know I was lucky to meet him, and extraordinarily lucky that I did so at a time when he had capacity for the (revenue-free) collaborations such as the Ecology and Design report about the need for ecological literacy in architecture education and then Women in Green: Voices of Sustainable Design. The latter project, in particular, was an absolute labor of love in every sense, and that journey — the many interviews, discussions, writing, and more discussions — brought us close together. While we were promoting the book, we appeared to be “attached at the hip” because we were so often together at conferences and events. He helped me be a better thinker and writer and person, again and again. We talked often in various forms, and he was always, always lifting me, encouraging me, and urging me to grow and stretch. He ignored conventional wisdom about moving on from jobs if the fit was not right, and I really respected his conviction. I think he helped every firm he worked with in meaningful ways, even those where the parting was less amiable. And I was so happy to hear him say, repeatedly, that he was feeling that he’d found, in HMC, a place where he could be, do, and impact things as he’d always hoped. I had the sense that he’d found his unicorn position. His birthday is two days after mine, so we always talked in early September and celebrated together when that was feasible. The shock of his death has given way to overwhelming sadness. I appreciate the calls for us to step it up on behalf of Lance. I suspect that I will continue to hear his voice in my head often, as I have regularly since our time working on the
book. So much of it was goofy or downright hilarious, such as the time at a conference when he found a waiter’s white glove, donned it … and made faces and gestures with that one-gloved-hand for the rest of the night. For whatever reason, we found that hilarious … it entertained us and a number of others for a surprising length of time. This has mostly been about my little corner of this loss. What we have lost, with Lance’s death, is so vast (as this document attests). The impact he had — on people, projects, organization, the design community, the sustainability movement, and more — was enormous. I’m glad he was in a hurry to do, make, be all that by 56. I deeply wish he’d had more time. Especially, of course, for his loving wife, Kate, and his family, of course, who are at the core of this loss. I wish for all of them a grief journey that is filled with memories of Lance-isms of all types, and all the joy and hilarity. That won’t ease the pain, but it strikes me that Lance and his Lance-ness make all things — even grief — more fun. RIP, Lance. I miss you so. (Kira Gould) ___________ Lance lit up a room when he walked into it. You couldn’t mistake his signature booming laugh, wry humor, and when he called you out to let you know he saw you, the authentic you. When he shined his light on you, it was intense like the sun. He would ask deep, provocative questions to really understand and learn, even if it was uncomfortable. He was fearless in this way. His enthusiasm and energy built up a fire in all of us to demand more, do more, be more. What I will remember most about Lance was the nurturing encouragement and growth that exuded from him. His ability to see through your imposter syndrome. Lance was a tireless champion of women, of people he didn’t think had a big enough box to stand on, or a mic and a stage so that the world could hear them. Thank you for lifting all of us up, Lance. Your memory will live on in our SDL gatherings, COTE Toasts, and green conferences. Happy Birthday, my friend. (Julie Hiromoto) ___________
I feel very blessed to have landed at HSPVA for 23 years, with the accompanying opportunity for close associations with countless marvelous young people, many of whom morphed into life-long friends as the years went by. I certainly count Lance among the latter. Though our paths didn’t cross often, it was memorable when they did. To wit: 1) Approx. 30 years ago, he let me know he was going to be home for several days around New Year’s, and, among other hangs, I arranged a New Year’s Day brunch specifically to “fix him up” (with the OK of both parties, both very single at the time). The “match” didn’t work (no sparks!), but it did provide chuckles for us in later years when the subject would come up. (FYI, I never played “Yenta” again!😊). 2) Coincidentally, we were together again for a New Year’s – this time in Taos, approx. 10 years ago. Helen (my wife) and I had gone there to celebrate with our good friends, Marvin and Nancy Stamm, and Lance was there visiting a fellow architect (as I recall) who had moved to Taos. We got together several times, but I especially recall a memorable New Year’s Eve dinner party at his friend’s home, with many stories, laughs, gourmet food, plentiful beverages, etc. 3) I was very touched when Lance invited me to his mother’s service; don’t recall how long ago this was, but I think before I saw him in Taos. It’s possible I didn’t see Lance after Taos; not sure. But we stayed in close touch via FB, email, etc. I won’t comment on Lance’s phenomenal professional success. That’s welldocumented elsewhere. He sent me 1 or 2 of his book — I did my best to understand them!
I would like to comment on his musicianship. Of my many ex-students who displayed strong music-career-potential in high school, but chose other professional paths, Lance would be at or near the top in terms of probable success if he had headed in the music-direction. I think I can quantify this via you-tube link below. This is Lance featured (soprano sax) on a tune from our ’83 (his senior year) album, “Morning Glory.” Tune is “Breath of Fresh Air,” composed by Phil Wilson, renowned trombonist (Woody Herman Orch.) and educator (Berklee College). If you’ve never heard this, I think you’ll be amazed at his sensitivity and maturity at age 19. Also, to this day, I marvel at Lance’s ending (*not* coached by me!): 1. The brief quote from “My Favorite Things” 2. Indulge me in some theory-speak: his last note, which is technically wrong (major 7th on minor 7th chord [gah!]). Which reminds me of Miles Davis: “There ain’t no such thing as a wrong note.” In Lance’s case, beautifully-so. But Lance was so much more than an extraordinary architect and musician. In addition, we will always remember him for: • • • • •
His intelligence His wit His laid-back-ness His warmth The many intangibles that made Lance Lance
It makes no sense that I’m still here, thriving, at 80, and Lance is gone, at the height of his thriving, at 56. But he would want us all to keep-onkeepin’-on. Wish me luck in accomplishing this, and I wish you all the same. I thought I could accomplish my “Lance thoughts” in one sitting, but no-can-do. Will be back...Love to all… https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=PxL8kjWzT84
## Doc back… I have so many Lance items I’d like to share that I’ve decided to spread them over several days. Here’s an e-mail and pic from 2004; self-explanatory…
## Lance-a-Day from Doc: In reference to yesterday’s posting: Here are Lance and Shawn in high school (11th/12th gr., respectively), spr. ’82, middle of sax section. This was a staged photo (pro photographer, lighting, etc.) taken at request of architect for then-new HSPVA Montrose campus (Recital Hall), for firm’s promotional materials. Incidentally, Kenneth Kress (saxophonist, far right) and Sam Goldenhar (elec. bassist) both attended North Shore High School (Galena Park, Houston suburb) with Lance before transferring to HSPVA. (Doc Morgan, with Keith B. Strawder Sr. and Christa Miller Simpson) ## Lance-a-Day from Doc Perhaps *the* memorable event in my entire career at HSPVA was our twoepisode association with Leonard Bernstein in 1983, for which Lance was the center-of-attention. A backstory is necessary: In the early 1980s, Leonard Bernstein received a tripartite commission from Houston Grand Opera (HGO), the Kennedy Center and Teatro alla Scala for his second opera, ultimately titled “A Quiet Place.” Houston was chosen for *the* premiere, scheduled for June 17, 1983. In May of that year, HGO hosted an event to officially welcome “Lenny” to Houston, give him a key to the city, etc. This was to be a very elaborate daytime occasion, with intersection downtown blocked-off, stage erected, many dignitaries, etc. The HSPVA Jazz Ensemble was invited to appear, not only providing incidental music as guests arrived, but, during the welcoming ceremony,
performing a Bernstein tune in his honor. Of course, we accepted, and for the Bernstein feature tune, I chose an arrangement of “Some Other Time” from Lenny’s 1944 musical, “On the Town.” Our arrangement was an alto sax feature, having been written by Don Elam for saxist Tony Campise, both local pro favorites at the time. For Maestro Bernstein, we featured Lance, this being near the end of his senior year. Among Bernstein’s many legendary tunes, “Some Other Time” is fairly obscure, and when we began playing it, he seemed startled, and pleased, to discover a long-way-from-New York high school jazz band with this tune in its repertoire. He was also obviously pleased with Lance’s performance, jumping-up as we concluded and hugging him, applauding mightily (ditto the crowd), etc. Unfortunately, I have no recording, but I have some pics of Lance and the Maestro, attached. Sadly, none show them hugging, but stay tuned for Episode 2! (teaser…) (Doc Morgan, with Keith B. Strawder Sr. and Christa Miller Simpson) ## Lance-a-Day from Doc In regard to yesterday’s posting on Lance’s experience with Leonard Bernstein: When Lance was living in Charlottesville, the local newspaper had a feature, “Brush with Greatness,” for which readers were invited to submit reminiscences/pics about such experiences in their lives. Lance submitted his “Brush with Lenny,” which was accepted and published; attached. I have no idea what date this was… ##
Lance-a-Day from Doc As previously noted, the Jazz Ensemble’s Bernstein experience consisted of two episodes, the first one (downtown presentation) posted previously. Episode 2: After hearing us perform, Lenny authorized his personal manager to hire us to perform at the downtown Four Seasons Hotel (poolside) for a lavish party Lenny was hosting for the entire cast & crew of the opera, HGO administrators, various dignitaries, etc. Of course, we accepted, party occurring on June 19, 1983. To say the party was wild would be an understatement, the tone of said wildness being set by the host, whose fondness for an abundance of (how should I say it?!) “party ingestions” was/is a matter of public record. From the beginning, he (Lenny) was insistent that we repeat “Some Other Time,” which I had planned to do anyway, but had been asked by party organizer to wait until near-end-of-party to do this climactic tune. With some awkwardness in having to say “Later, Lenny” several times (!), I finally introduced Lance for his spotlight tune. By that point, the Maestro was (how should I say it?!) pretty far gone, and, during the tune, he weaved-around in front of the band (cigarette-alwaysin-hand), cheerleading for Lance and the band, half-conducting, etc. At the conclusion, another even more boisterous Lenny/Lance hug! I have very few photographs of Episode 2; attached. BUT, I have a video of scenes from the party (including The Hug!), which I’ll post tomorrow. Incidentally, the other conductor (pics) is Sid Ramin, protégé of Bernstein’s, who had been brought-in to help Lenny finish orchestrations for the opera. He won an Oscar (1961) for orchestrations for “West Side Story.” He was conducting the ensemble in his hit tune from the ‘60s, “Music to Watch Girls By” (Andy Williams, etc.). I had arranged this as a surprise for him,
knowing he was going to be there… ## Lance-a-Day from Doc Here is video, as promised yesterday (so sorry, but no sound; this was thencommon regular-8 movie film, which had no soundtrack) There are two segments: 1. April, 1982: Jazz Ensemble providing incidental music at dedication of Joan Miró sculpture, “Personage with Birds,” downtown Houston. Lance is seen twice, briefly (also seen: Gerald Ford, Lady Bird Johnson, Mayor Kathy Whitmire). 2. June, 1983: The aforementioned Leonard Bernstein party. There are copious captions that will remind of all details…https://www. facebook.com/robert.morgan.3532/videos/283820786574875/ ## Lance-a-Day from Doc Spring, ’83, was quite-a-semester for Lance and the HSPVA jazz program. In addition to the Bernstein experiences, the HSPVA Jazz Septet, including Lance, toured Japan for approx. two weeks in March/April. The primary purpose was to perform in Chiba, Houston’s sister city in Japan (an oil city on Tokyo Bay), but there were also performances in Osaka, Kobe and Tokyo, and a “tourist visit” to Kyoto, Japan’s ancient capital. Here are a few photos and a partial newspaper clipping; plus, a roster, where you can see everyone’s names in Japanese! (the other lines are host families’ info).
And, it has nothing to do with Lance, but I’m including a postcard I wrote to my mom from Kobe. I’ll be back tomorrow with more from Japan… ❤ ## Lance-a-Day from Doc Japan continued… Here is link for my movies of Japan trip, Lance prominent here and there... https://youtu.be/ujL3-mDi4is ## Class of ’83: I hope my Lance Hosey postings have been helpful; they have certainly been therapeutic for me. There will probably be more in the future, but this will be the last one for a while. And, it’s a special one, as you will soon discover. Backstory: Prior to my 60th birthday twenty years ago, Helen secretly solicited testimonial letters (blush) from a bunch of my ex-students and surprised me with a collection of same on my b-day. Of course, not all responded, but Lance did, and I would now like to share his response publicly for the first time. I think it demonstrates: • Lance’s serious skill as a writer (he obviously didn’t just “dash this off ”)
• His sense of humor • And, like any good storyteller, his exaggerations (!) I trust y’all will understand my desire to share this rather private item at this time, and please forgive my immodesty in doing so… ❤ Doc (Doc Morgan, with Keith B. Strawder Sr. and Christa Miller Simpson) ___________
Renowned architect, author, and educator Lance Hosey, FAIA, died unexpectedly on Aug. 27. Most recently the chief impact officer and a civic practice leader at HMC Architects, in San Diego, Hosey advocated for design excellence and sustainability—in its comprehensive form, as encompassing the “integration of social, economic, and environmental value,” he wrote in 2019 in ARCHITECT, to which he was a longtime contributor. One of an estimated 30 people in the world to hold the distinctions of being a Fellow of AIA and a LEED Fellow, by the U.S. Green Building Council, Hosey ardently spoke and wrote about expanding the notion of holistic design to consider physical parameters, aesthetic qualities, performance, and impact on the health of occupants and of the surrounding community. He was the recipient of numerous awards, including a Graham Foundation Grant in 2001 and AIA|DC’s Sarah Booth Conroy Prize in 2018; a frequent public speaker, featured at events by ARCHITECT, SXSW, and TED; and an educator, teaching at several institutions, including Yale University and the University of Virginia. Hosey was active in the AIA Committee on the Environment. He helped lead the update of AIA COTE’s Measures of Sustainable Design into more clear, practical, and inclusive guidelines, which he discussed in his 2016 ARCHITECT article “Redefining Sustainable Design: AIA COTE
Overhauls Its Top Ten Awards Criteria.” The Top Ten Measures would be adopted as AIA’s Framework for Design Excellence in 2019 as being relevant objectives for projects of all scales, types, and budgets. Moreover, Hosey valued data and accountability, researching and distilling takeaways from firms that consistently produce high-performance, aesthetic projects in the hopes that more architects would embrace his belief that design and performance go hand in hand. Born on Sept. 11, 1964, in Houston, Hosey studied jazz saxophone in high school before earning his B.A. in architecture at Columbia University and then his M.Arch. at Yale University. His penchant for performance would later pay off as he became a visible and unabashedly outspoken architect, unafraid to decry greenwashing or promote the necessity of sustainable design when it was still considered extraneous by many in the AEC profession. His long career included positions at Rafael Viñoly Architects and Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects (now Gwathmey Siegel Kaufman Architects); a nearly decadelong stint as a design director at William McDonough + Partners; the role of chief sustainability officer at RTKL Associates (now CallisonRTKL) and then Perkins Eastman, both in Washington, D.C.; the chair of design excellence at Harley Ellis Devereaux, in San Diego; and a principal, design director, and global co-leader of design resilience at Gensler, in Austin, Texas. When I asked him about his transition to HMC last summer, he responded that he planned to “broaden the conversation beyond what is often perceived (or misperceived) to be the narrower concerns of sustainability (i.e., resource conservation).” And the firm felt his impact during his short tenure. “Lance’s time with us at HMC was ephemeral. His impact, monumental,” the firm wrote in its tribute to Hosey. “In just 14 months, he showed us a fleeting glimpse of what the future looked like. And it was epic.”
At HMC, his projects include leading the design of a zero-carbon concept community in Lagos, Nigeria, and the Honeybee Discovery Center in Orland, Calif., which is aiming to become “one of world’s smartest buildings,” according to the firm. Other projects in Hosey’s career included the LEED Gold–certified American University School of International Service, in Washington, designed with William McDonough + Partners, and several planning and design concepts. Hosey was a longtime contributor to ARCHITECT magazine, penning his regular column “Ecology” from early 2007—about six months after the magazine’s launch—until 2010. I first met Hosey when he was at RTKL, in Washington, and I was struck by his command not only of design principles but also of marketing and business. He knew how to synthesize and present his ideas with conviction and in a high-level—but detailed if pressed— manner. These are skills possessed by few people, across disciplines. I edited Hosey when he wrote for ARCHITECT between 2016 and 2019 and valued his expertise as a reliable and engaging source for other articles. He was a meticulous writer, the rare combination of architect and consummate copy editor. His most recent book, The Shape of Green: Aesthetics, Ecology, and Design (Island Press, 2012), had topped the charts on Amazon as the bestseller in the sustainability and green design category, a point of pride for him. According to a tribute published on his personal website, Hosey “focused on propelling the architecture, engineering, and construction industry forward on a broad, unified understanding of design that includes sustainability, equity, and health.” In his 2013 TedCity2.0 talk, Hosey asked, “What is the purpose of design?” He goes on to dispel the tired notion of the lone-wolf architect portrayed famously in The Fountainhead (Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1943) and then argues for the integration of more data and research in architecture. “Imagine if every designer understood more about the emerging science of desire,
the mechanics of attraction,” he said. “Then all of design, from houses to whole cities, could become not just good-looking, but good for you. What we consider good about design could become less about what we designers like and more about what makes us all healthier and happier.” ___________
AN is saddened to learn that Lance Hosey—highly decorated architect, prolific author, public speaker, and tireless champion of sustainable design—passed away late last month on August 27. The Houston-born Hosey was 56 years old. A fellow of both the American Institute of Architects and the U.S. Green Building Council, Hosey joined Los Angeles-headquartered HMC Architects in June 2020 as the firm’s chief impact officer—an inaugural role not only for the Californian firm but for the entire architecture industry. Prior to that, Hosey served as principal, design director, and co-leader of design resilience at Gensler and as chief sustainability officer with RTLK Associates (now CallisonRTKL) and Perkins Eastman. For nearly a decade, he worked closely with architect and Cradle to Cradle pioneer William McDonough as director at McDonough’s eponymous firm. AN extends its condolences to Hosey’s family, friends, and colleagues.
Years ago, green design and good design were very different things. It is one of the reasons that Graham Hill founded Treehugger with its ironic name as a design site with nothing on it that had any sort of hippie treehugger aesthetic. The division was so stark that the American Institute of Architects had two awards programs: one for “good” design, and the AIA/ COTE awards for “green” design. When I started contributing to Treehugger in 2005, it was actually hard to find good green buildings to write about. In 2009 I wrote in a now-archived post, “Why is so much green architecture so ugly?”: “For many years the starchitects who were getting all the press in the design magazines, the Franks and Zahas and Rems, were not particularly interested in the mundane and mechanical fixings of green buildings. One also sees a lot more of lousy green buildings as it still doesn’t take much more than a LEED badge to get in the press or on the blogs.” And then there was Lance Hosey. He wrote often about the rift between design excellence and environmental performance, most famously in Architect Magazine in 2010 after a notorious Vanity Fair article about “the greatest buildings of the last 30 years,” almost none of which even had a tinge of green. Hosey wrote:
“Sustainability, it seems, is not much on the minds of the architectural elite. While green building has become increasingly popular over the past three decades, the gap between standards of design excellence and of environmental performance could be getting wider.” It became Lance Hosey’s mission to bring beauty and sustainability together. In 2012 he wrote the now-classic book, “The Shape of Green,” still in print from Island Press. In it, he argued that you actually can’t have sustainability without beauty. “Long term value is impossible without sensory appeal, because if design doesn’t inspire, it is destined to be discarded. ‘In the end,’ writes Senegalese poet Baba Dioum, ‘we conserve only what we love.’ We don’t love something because it is non-toxic and biodegradable, we love it because it moves the head and heart. When we treasure something, we’re less prone to kill it, so desire fuels preservation. Love it or lose it. In this sense, the old mantra could be replaced by a new one: If it’s not beautiful, it’s not sustainable. Aesthetic attraction is not a superficial concern, it’s an environmental imperative. Beauty could save the planet.” I learned so much from Lance. I concluded my review noting that he changed the way I looked at and wrote about architecture, and about the way I taught my sustainable design class. “’The Shape Of Green’ deals with the fundamental issues that I could never quite express to my students about the importance of aesthetics, design, and, yes, even beauty, to green building. I could never quite justify why I would post some projects on Treehugger and skip others that might have a higher LEED score. After reading ‘The Shape of Green,’ I am much more confident in saying that if it doesn’t move the heart, it doesn’t move the needle on sustainability.” Lance Hosey changed the way we think about sustainable design. His death at only 56 years old is a tragedy. I met him at a conference in 2008 and did a
really terrible interview of him, and have considered him a friend ever since. Architect, writer, and speaker Eric Corey Freed knew him much better. I asked him for a few words, and will end with his: “Lance was brilliant but infuriating. He loved to argue (and was really good at it!). He was Hemingway-esque in that he lived LOUDLY: loud drink, loud jazz, loud belly laugh ... but he wasn’t what you’d assume. But I’d usually find him not in the center of the room as the center of attention, but rather holding court in a dark corner at the back of the room. To know him was to be challenged by him. His very existence challenged your perception of the Ivy League, white male architect: he was fighting for more equity, more equality and women’s rights, more beauty from our buildings. Just when you’d think, ‘Well who could argue with those ideas?’ Lance would find a way to argue with you and expand your thinking in a way you never considered.” A lovely obituary has been published on Lance Hosey’s website. ___________
Lance Hosey, FAIA, LEED Fellow, died unexpectedly at his home on Friday, August 28, 2021 in San Diego, California. As shock gives way to reflection at BuildingGreen and the larger sustainable design community, Lance’s career as an architect, a widely published author, a committed mentor for dozens of emerging architects, and a champion of buildings that demonstrate both beauty and leading-edge environmental performance comes into focus. Lance Hosey grew up in Houston, Texas and studied jazz saxophone at the High School for Performing and Visual Arts. He earned a BA in architecture and art history at Columbia University in 1987 and a Masters of Architecture at Yale University in 1990. Following positions at Rafael Viñoly Architects, Gwathmey Siegel & Associates, and Adamstein & Demetriou, Lance landed at William McDonough+Partners in 1999, where he worked first as an associate for six years, then returned as a director for two years. At McDonough+Partners, Lance became a champion of sustainability, working on such projects as NASA’s “Sustainability Base” in Moffett Field, California, the School for International Service at American University in Washington, D.C., the Mission Bay Medical Center in San Francisco, and the Johnson Building in Racine, Wisconsin. During his time with McDonough, Lance also began his prolific writing career, contributing to the books The Ecology of Home (2007) and Toward
a Humane Environment: Sustainable Design and Social Justice (2008), coauthoring with Kira Gould Women in Green: Voices of Sustainable Design (2007), and writing dozens of articles in leading publications— including Architecture Magazine, where he was a columnist and contributing editor. Following his work at McDonough + Partners and time invested in book projects, Lance served from 2010 to 2012 as president and CEO of GreenBlue, the nonprofit organization founded by William McDonough and Michael Braungart, Ph.D., to advance the use of healthy, sustainable materials. He served as the first chief sustainability officer at RTKL Associates and held sustainability leadership positions at Perkins Eastman, Gensler, and HMC Architects in San Diego, where he was working as the chief impact officer at the time of his death. Throughout his many moves around the country, Lance always maintained a busy speaking schedule, giving hundreds of presentations throughout the U.S. and worldwide. His 2012 book, The Shape of Green: Aesthetics, Ecology, and Design sparked an active dialogue, as did a 2013 New York Times article, “Why We Love Beautiful Things.” Among his proudest accomplishments was his central role in rewriting the AIA Committee on the Environment’s Top Ten Measures in a way that set them up for adoption as the AIA Framework for Design Excellence. This move amounted to an endorsement by the architectural establishment of his contention that “good design” and “green design” are not separable. Lance’s friend and long-term collaborator Kira Gould wrote of their work on Women in Green: “The research and writing turned into a rich exploration of the green building movement, feminine leadership, and the nature and power of diversity. It was clear even while we were researching the book that we were onto something significant: there was a need for new kinds of leadership and collaboration, and women were charting those paths. As soon as the
book came out, it sparked a conversation, which in many ways continues today. Many groups picked up on the theme, often using the Women in Green name directly.” Lance was an inspiration, collaborator, and provocateur for us at BuildingGreen. He had a stunning ability to meaningfully advance the dialogue every time he turned his attention to a new topic. He was tireless and extremely generous with his time and talents when asked, and he never hesistated to reach out and let us know when he felt that we missed the mark in an article. Lance was also at the center of many consequential conversations as a long-term member of BuildingGreen’s Sustainable Design Leaders network. Like so many others that he touched in so many ways, we mourn his loss. We’ll miss him personally, and the sustainability movement will miss him profoundly. It’s some consolation to know that we still have his books and articles to guide and motivate us to keep our shoulders to the wheel. ___________
Tributes have been paid from the architecture and design community to design and sustainability champion Lance Hosey, who passed away on August 27th at age 56. Hosey was the Chief Impact Officer at HMC Architects, and an acclaimed author and public speaker. In 2015, Hosey became one of only 30 people to have been named as a Fellow of both the American Institute of Architects and the U.S Green Building Council. Throughout his career, Hosey wrote two books and hundreds of essays on design innovation. During his time at HMC, who he joined in June 2020, he oversaw the firm’s design and sustainability ethos, leading strategies to improve the impact of the firm’s work, and mentoring young designers. Before his time at HMC, Hosey was a Director at William McDonough + Partners, a principal at Gensler, and a Chief Sustainability Officer at both RTKL Associates (now Callison RTKL) and Perkins Eastman. Beyond his core roles in practice, Hosey contributed significantly to the design industry and other initiatives through volunteer service, including roles at the AIA, USGBC, Berkley Center for the Built Environment, SXSW Eco, Savannah College of Art and Design School of Building Arts, and the EPA. His written contributions included two books (The Shape of Green and Women in Green) and hundreds of essays for outlets such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Huffington Post. Responding to news of Hosey’s passing, the USGBC described him as “an inspiring force in the world of sustainability.” Meanwhile, Lake|Flato Architects director Heather Holdridge, who previously collaborated with Hosey, said “Lance has been a sustainable design leader at several firms, and we have spent the last 10+ years bothering each other for help and
feedback on various sustainability initiatives we’ve each been working on. I always felt astounded by how quickly he responded and how generous he was with his time. He was an incredibly busy, sought-after person, but was deeply invested in mentoring the next generation and advocating for more female leaders in our profession.” Before his death, Hosey provided a special narration for a short film created by HMC for the 2021 AIA Film Challenge, called “Building for Bees” which you can watch above. Hosey also led the design for the project featured in the film, the Honeybee Discovery Center in Orland, CA. “He often said that it’s one of those projects that perfectly aligns with HMC’s mission to make a positive impact,” said Bruce Boul, Communications Director at HMC Architects, reflecting on Hosey and the film. “His vision of impactful design is embodied in this project which is set to achieve net-zero energy, net-zero water, LEED Platinum, and full Living Building Challenge certification, becoming not only a model of sustainability for the region but also one of the highest-performing buildings in the world.” In a statement on behalf of HMC Architects following Hosey’s passing, Boul wrote: “Lance’s time with us at HMC was ephemeral. His impact, monumental. In just 14 months, he showed us a fleeting glimpse of what the future looked like. And it was epic.” “He pushed us to do better. Be better. To explore new ways to improve the impact of design: socially, economically, and environmentally. To cast off trends and focus on the idea that a building looks the way it does because it works the way it does. To design buildings and communities that are not just good-looking but good for us. And what we consider to be good design could become less about what designers like, and more about what makes us all healthier and happier. “His legacy will be felt at HMC for many years to come because he shifted the culture of design and the way we approach our projects. He excited our spirit and stirred our minds.”
As humans, we struggle to embrace the magic of momentary connections. We hope—even expect—that everyone who crosses our path is here to stay. But as Robert Frost said of nature’s first green, ‘nothing gold can stay.’ So, we’re left with the magic. Lance’s time with us at HMC was ephemeral. His impact, monumental. In just 14 months, he showed us a fleeting glimpse of what the future looked like. And it was epic. It was as if he was sent here from another time to tell us some things and then was on his way. Lance joined HMC in June 2020 as the architecture industry’s first chief impact officer. He was the embodiment of HMC’s mission to anticipate community needs and create designs that have a positive impact. Maybe that’s why he felt so at home here.
For someone so unapologetic in his rally cry to design aesthetically attractive buildings with low (or zero) energy, his energy was off the charts. At HMC, he oversaw design and sustainability and served as our civic practice leader. He led strategies to improve the impact of HMC’s work and ensure that we are fulfilling our mission to serve communities. He became a mentor to younger designers. Designed a zero-carbon concept community in Lagos, Nigeria, that was featured in The New York Times among 16 projects looking ahead to a greener, healthier, and more equitable world. And was leading the design of a new Honeybee Discovery Center in Orland, California that aims to be one of the world’s smartest buildings and the nation’s only center of its kind. All this while leading the firm’s internal design awards competition, which takes place this October during HMC Design Week. He pushed us to do better. Be better. To explore new ways to improve the impact of design: socially, economically, and environmentally. To cast off trends and focus on the idea that a building looks the way it does because it works the way it does. To design buildings and communities that are not just good-looking but good for us. And what we consider to be good design could become less about what designers like, and more about what makes us all healthier and happier. His legacy will be felt at HMC for many years to come because he shifted the culture of design and the way we approach our projects. He excited our spirit and stirred our minds. That’s the magic. Thank you for that gift, Lance. -Your HMC family ___________
Lance Eugene Hosey (September 11, 1964 - August 27, 2021) loved breakfast. He also loved ranked lists; clowning around (but not clowns); music, particularly jazz and Motown; B-rated movies; coffee; ridiculous signage and absurd corporate catchphrases; walking on the beach; imagining himself as cultural icons (including Mr. Clean, Mr. Peanut, Santa, Abraham Lincoln and Little Lord Fauntleroy); a good cocktail, especially Bloody Marys (especially with bacon); robust debate; hanging out with friends (the more the merrier); good (and bad) puns; beauty (he wrote a book on it); and his hilarious family. Things that drove him insane included 1) inconsistency, b) bad grammar, C) mean people, 3) two spaces after a period, f) qualifiers to the word “unique,” and 9) the Oxford comma. As an acclaimed architect, author, advocate and public speaker, Lance focused on new ways to advance the impact of design. He studied architecture at Columbia University (bachelor’s degree) and then Yale (master’s degree). For nearly a decade he was a Director with William McDonough + Partners and later served as Chief Sustainability Officer with two of the world’s largest design firms. Most recently he was HMC Architects’ Chief Impact Officer and Civic Practice Leader. The recipient of numerous professional awards and fellowships, Lance became a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 2014; this honor recognizes those “who have made a significant contribution to architecture and society.” The next year, he was named a LEED Fellow by the US Green Building Council, one of only 30 people in the world to receive both honors. Eco-pioneer John Elkington called Lance “an inspirational guide to a future we can’t wait to embrace,” and Builder magazine said Lance was “on a crusade to revolutionize what it means to be sustainable.”
His influence on the profession went far beyond his built work. A prolific writer, he was the author of hundreds of articles and several books, including most recently The Shape of Green: Aesthetics, Ecology and Design (2012), which studied the relationships between beauty and sustainability (and made the top of a number of ranked lists, which pleased him). He served on numerous boards, working groups and juries; he taught at Yale and the University of Virginia, among other universities. In all these capacities, he was focused on propelling the architecture, engineering and construction industry forward on a broad, unified understanding of design that includes sustainability, equity and health. He was a key voice in shaping the American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment (COTE)’s Measures of Sustainable Design, which became the AIA’s Framework for Design Excellence. Nadav Malin, a peer leader in the industry, once described “an even rarer quality to [Lance’s] leadership: a willingness to put himself on the line and do the unexpected…he is unafraid to look foolish or face rejection, which allows him a special freedom and power to act and make things happen. It also makes him highly approachable -- even endearing -- despite his sometimes intimidating intellect, which further increases his effectiveness as a leader.” Those qualities, combined with his love of people and his dedication to raising up the next generation, especially women, made him an amazing mentor to many: inspirational, supportive, insightful and genuine.
Anyone who spent any amount of time with Lance knew how much music fed his soul. Born and raised in Houston, he attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts as a jazz saxophonist, an experience that cemented both life-long friendships and his love of performing. While he continued to play the sax, and would occasionally sit in on jazz sets, in later years the piano became his instrument of choice. He could sit down at a piano any time of day and transport listeners to the Blue Note on a Saturday night. When not playing, he enjoyed his exhaustive record library of well known (and unknown) artists from a wide range of periods (with a concentration on jazz, Motown and funk). His internal soundtrack would often reveal itself as he burst into song during the day, instigating impromptu sing-alongs anchored by his rich baritone. He is survived by his wife and soulmate, Kate Higgins Hosey of San Diego; his brothers Kevin (wife Terrelia) of Lewisville, TX, and Terry Hosey (wife Tiffanny) of Plano, TX; nephews Christian and Sean Hosey; nieces Kimberly and Morgan Hosey; and an enormous collection of close friends, colleagues and admirers. Lance never failed to amuse, entertain, challenge and uplift us. He will be widely and deeply missed by the many who cherish his memory.
I wasn’t going to write something in this document. Lance’s passing was too much of a gut-punch for me to put it into words, so I did what I do: I organized people and made things. The time I’ve spent reading all of the Lance tributes in this book has helped me process what we’ve lost, in a way, and I’m heartened that he’ll live on in so many of our hearts. What an amazing legacy for someone so young. If I’m honest, Lance drove me crazy; his constant list-making, his gross oversimplifications, his grand unified theories on beauty and sustainability all went against my approach to life and work. So many coffees and meals arguing ideas, only to end with him saying something to the effect of, “So, we obviously agree on these three points” and restating his position at the beginning of the conversation, unchanged. For Lance, the bigger the party, the greater the fun, which was really difficult for an introvert like me. He was infuriating...but at the same time endearing. The way he could light up a room with silly questions or impromptu show tunes. His infectious laugh. The way he’d encourage everyone in a meeting to have an opinion and a voice. I admired Lance for his constant searching for what was true and meaningful, his commitment to mentoring, and his confidence. He was a prolific writer, an inspirational speaker, a talented musician, and a systems thinker. I left every engagement seeing how I could grow as an architect, a mentor, and a person. Lance was the annoying big brother I never knew I needed. I was honored to be his friend, to be part of some of the highs and the lows of his life over the past 20 years. When I think about how I’ll make sense of this loss, yes, I’ll join the call to double-down on kicking butt. But I’ll also look around me to see who I can help lift up. I’ll channel his delight in people, in music (sigh, even jazz, for Lance I will make a concerted effort to open up to jazz — even Benny BoBo), in a good cocktail or a breakfast taco. Most importantly, I’ll be unafraid of looking foolish or being vulnerable or doing the wrong thing, because that courage is at the heart of Lance’s legacy and it’s what I’ll miss the most. (Michelle Amt)