Love + Regeneration Volume 4, Issue 2

A Quarterly Journal from McLennan Design.

Rediscovering our relationship to the natural world.

Volume 4 Issue 2

TRIBUTE Cornelia Hahn Oberlander

LEAD Free Speech in the Era of Limitless Media

CELEBRATE HMTX World Headquarters

MCLENNAN DESIGN

Signs of Summer!

Fully vaccinated, weather improving, days stretching long into evening, flowers blooming, the pandemic receding. It’s the dawn of a new season here in Seattle and all of us at McLennan Design are cautiously optimistic. Hopefully, this new decade is beginning with an awakening, and as we collectively begin to emerge from the throes of the pandemic we also seek to tackle the challenges of climate change, social injustices, and political polarization. We create these little magazines in the hope that they touch a few souls and inspire change – and also to share with our community the work and ideas of the firm and the broader movement.

We also remember – on the cover and inside this edition - the incredible legacy of Cornelia Oberlander, the transformative landscape architect who was a pioneer in Vancouver and across Canada. When I first moved to Seattle and began to put the Living Building Challenge out into the world, she was supportive and kind to me and my ideas, which meant a lot coming from someone of her stature. I had first learned of her from my previous firm’s work at the CK Choi Building, and became enamored with her work with Erickson both downtown and at the University. She recently left us all, so we celebrate her legacy as a pioneer and leading voice of design.

Inside the issue, I share an article I wrote on the perils of social media and the abundance of misinformation in this crazy age we find ourselves in – I hope many of you will read and share it widely.

We also focus on the exciting groundbreaking of our HMTX World Headquarters and so much more – a rich, full issue to start the summer. Please read and enjoy!

Sincerely,

Jason F. McLennan CEO, McLennan Design

SUMMER 2021

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

JASON F. MCLENNAN

GRAPHIC DESIGN

MICHELLE HENRY

CONTRIBUTORS

KRISTINA AVRAMOVIC OLDANI, GALEN CARLSON, BRAD BENKE, LI-YOUNG LEE

SOCIAL MEDIA

McLennan Design respectfully acknowledges the Suquamish and Duwamish peoples, who, throughout the generations, stewarded and thrived on the land where we live and work.

June 2021, Volume 4, Issue 2 LOVE + REGENERATION is a quarterly publication of McLennan Design, LLC. © 2021 by McLennan Design. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Content may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission and is intended for informational purposes only.

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Cover Photo/Yoshihiro Makino

NAVIGATE

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TRIBUTE

In Memoriam Cornelia Hahn Oberlander

LEAD

Free Speech in the Era of Limitless Media People, Meaning and the Future of Work What are People For? By Jason F. McLennan

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CELEBRATE

HMTX World Headquarters “The House Up on The Hill” To Become Connecticut’s Greenest Building

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ELEVATE

From Blossoms Li-Young Lee

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CONTRIBUTE

Living Deep A Sustainable Design Marketplace Where the Mission is Buy Less

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TRIBUTE

SUMMER 2021

Remembering

Cornelia Hahn Oberlander (1921-2021) At the helm of creating green spaces that provide relief to city inhabitants around the globe, the designer approached her role as a kind of healing art Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, one of the most important Canadian landscape architects, has passed away at the age of 99 in Vancouver.

Oberlander’s career was crafted with awe-inspiring spotlights, her projects and legacy on the importance of green spaces and public spaces will continure to inspire generations to come.

While much of Oberlander’s work can be found in and around Vancouver, her impact on the larger profession of landscape architecture and the role of women within it is profound. Born to a horticulturist mother and an engineer father in Germany, Oberlander emigrated to the United States at the age of 18 in 1938 after fleeing the Nazis with her mother and sister. They emigrated to the United States in 1939.1

Square and the Law Courts Complex in Vancouver; the National Gallery of Canada, the Canadian Chancery in Washington D.C.; the Library Square at the Vancouver Public Library; the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia; the Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly Building in Yellowknife; and the Children’s Creative Centre at Expo ’67 in Montreal.

During her career she contributed landscape designs for private residences, playgrounds, urban parks, and other public spaces, as well as major projects including buildings in both Canada and the United States, including the Robson

1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelia_Oberlander

Peacekeeping Monument, Ottawa, Canada

Photo/Yoshihiro Makino

My passion is to be with nature and introduce people to it from all levels of society. I believe in the therapeutic effects of greenery on the human soul.

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“I work with a concept … driven by the idea that people want to be surrounded by nature—it is in our genes.”

Landscape plans for Children’s Creative Centre Playground, Canadian Federal Pavilion, Expo 67, Montréal, Québec

CCA/Cornelia Hahn Oberlander

CCA/Cornelia Hahn Oberlander

Transversal section, Robson Square Provincial Government Complex, Vancouver, British Columbia

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FREE SPEECH IN THE ERA OF

GET THE FACTS

LIMITLESS MEDIA

By Jason F. McLennan

The foundation of any solid and functioning democracy is built of a few key ingredients: an educated and literate population, a free press that maintains high standards of truth in its reporting, free speech, freedom of religion, and the right to peacefully assembly. This recipe is so critical to democracy that the United States’ founding fathers codified it in the first amendment to the Constitution: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

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The good health and longevity of any democracy further demands protections of the minority from the majority, protections for the majority from radical fringes, the protection of inclusive elections with high voter turnout, and the peaceful transfer of power when, through the mechanisms of democracy, the people demand change in their leadership.

This year in the United States we have experienced a figurative earthquake to the very underpinnings of the fundamentals of democracy—a concerted and coordinated attack on the democratic system of government—the magnitude of which has threatened the integrity of this foundation. The attack on the United States Congress on January 6, 2021 is understood by many as the death throes of the Republican Party which, having staunchly refused to amend itself to the times in which we live, has lost its relevance to the good of our nation and as a result can no longer win elections fairly.1 The rally that culminated in this attack was not spontaneous but was in fact carefully 12

orchestrated by uncensored and unscrupulous politicians via media platforms that refused to stanch lies of voter fraud and a stolen election after efforts to cast doubt on and overthrow election results via lawsuits failed to be substantiated.

For the benefit of our mental and societal health, media should be just as consistently labeled as anything else we consume.

While the events of January 6th came as a shock to many the world over, the runaway radicalization of the right in America is not a huge surprise when understood in the context of a disturbing trend in how misinformation is peddled, by a noxious combination of unregulated news mediums and politicians willing to suspend their integrity for self-serving reasons who

use these mediums to their advantage, and at the expense of democracy. As a result, American democracy was just tested in an extreme way—unthinkable a mere 20 years ago—and barely held.

Society should decide what should be and should not be outright banned.

But a willful demonstration of disseminating untruths necessitates government and societal regulation— at the very least, we should have the right to truth, corroborated by the best available science and other sound metrics. For the benefit of our mental and societal health, media should be just as consistently labeled as anything else we consume, be it alcohol, or a bag of chips, or a movie.

Our consumption of media causes real illness—depression, suicide, eating disorders, anxiety, and outrage to name a few—and therefore should be carefully labeled for the damages it can cause. Just as a diet of junk food causes a rapid and pronounced decline in bodily health, a diet of junk news does very much the same to mental health, and by extension, the wellbeing of society.

Just as a diet of junk food causes a rapid and pronounced decline in bodily health, a diet of junk news does very much the same to mental health, and by extension, the well-being of society.

We have some minor guardrails in place—think movie ratings and content warnings—but we clearly need to expand the concepts of civil liberties to include the idea that people have the right to know what’s bullshit when it’s presented as fact. If we think of the kind of Surgeon General Warnings that are now attached to cigarette packaging, we can find some clues as to what is reasonable to introduce as regulation. Since 1970, tobacco companies have been compelled to include these warnings; they weren’t told to regulate themselves—they were proven to have misled enough Americans in believing their products were healthy when in fact they were deadly, and as a society we said, “enough is enough!” Tobacco companies (like the major social media platforms wreaking havoc on American democracy and individual well-being today) proved again and again that their primary consideration in the marketing of their products was to make money, and so (unlike those same social media platforms) they lost their right to self-regulate and lead the public discussion of said products. In effect, we said to these companies, “You can no longer claim that an unhealthy product is healthy—that’s a dangerous lie—and further, you must actually report the truth, that your products can give people cancer and other kinds of horrible, deadly diseases.”

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It’s easy to quickly and dismissively label such attempts at regulation as extreme encroachments on First Amendment rights or alarmingly socialist in nature, but let’s not be lazy or insincere about our assessments. Other nations—the UK, France, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada to name a few—in which freedom of speech and the autonomy of the press are equally and vociferously championed as in the US, have found meaningful ways to introduce regulation that serves to hone, not hamper, their media outlets, although with varying degrees of success. Go back just a few decades, at a time when broadcasting channels were limited and we were all consuming more or less the same news in this country, it was easier to decipher fact from fiction by way of a broad

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We clearly need to expand the concepts of civil liberties to include the idea that people have the right to know what’s bullshit when it’s presented as fact.

audience alone, not to mention the strength of regulations— like the Fairness Doctrine—in place to uphold standards of excellence.2 If news overstepped too heavily into opinion, or even further into blatant untruth, there were adequate selfcorrecting measures by way of air-time allowed to dissenting and differing voices and views, and a diverse audience that demanded redaction or other corrections as necessary. And perhaps most importantly, the law emphasized protecting the civil liberties of the people: “It is the right of the

viewers and listeners, not the right of the broadcasters, which is paramount,” wrote Supreme Court Justice Byron White in a 1959 ruling in which the Fairness Doctrine was challenged but upheld.3

Not too long ago, Americans wrung their hands over how people in other countries were being “radicalized by propaganda,” when now it is America that is seeing the most rapid and massive radicalization process.

But now we self-select for our news (even if unknowingly) that suits already concretized viewpoints; we have nearly infinite options available to us, none of which are obligated to present balanced or accurate coverage, and the algorithms that fuel our internet searches extract data from our histories or social media platforms and steer us toward views we are inclined to agree with, rather than those by which we’d be challenged or informed, using behavioral psychology to manipulate us into extreme and dangerous behaviors or beliefs, Photo/Jonathan Hillyer image: Alex Mondau

ultimately leading to injustice and extremism. Increasingly, “news” coverage is relative to one’s political inclinations, exacerbated by a glut of media outlets without any regulatory obligation to hew to truth, algorithms that fuel outrage and the spread of misinformation, and echo-chambers, the cacophony of which disallow truth to be heard even when its voice is present. The lack of oversight and regulation, compounded by the sheer volume of third-party platforms, has resulted in media’s sustained nosedive, as evidenced by upticks in belief

of once laughable conspiracy theories and the unchecked dissemination of blatant untruths, recently euphemized as “alternative facts.” This pattern is reminiscent of religious radicalization using social media rather than the pulpit to gain adherents. Not too long ago, Americans wrung their hands over how people in other countries were being “radicalized by propaganda,” when now it is America that is seeing the most rapid and massive radicalization process.

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People like Rush Limbaugh on talk radio and now Tucker Carlson on Fox News have popularized a culture of hate.

The Rise and Fall of News and Truth It wasn’t so long ago that news was nearly exclusively circulated by a relatively small core of professional press outlets including local papers, a limited array of radio channels and the major television networks. Until recently, there was a general enduring ethic of integrity in journalism that understood that democracy relied on truth to survive and thrive. It relied on balance and, as much as possible, a lack of bias. While media outlets have always skewed to one political ideology or another, journalistic integrity was paramount, sources protected, facts checked, erroneous information retracted, and balanced and fair coverage expected as democracy and a civil society depended on it.

Understanding that a system that relied on the integrity of its ownership (however well intentioned) was

insufficient to uphold democracy, the Fairness Doctrine that regulated broadcast journalism had the power to step in when coverage became unfairly biased.

In a variety of cases tried by the Supreme Court, the doctrine was upheld. The court opinions that accompanied these rulings emphasized the goal of creating an educated and informed public who, given all the information, were then well-equipped to formulate their own sound opinions.

But since its abolishment in the 80s, attempts to revive or reimagine the doctrine in some way have all been thwarted and each time the First Amendment is cited.

This abolishment gave rise to divisive talk radio that has done irreparable harm to civil discourse and has created the hyper-partisan polarization of political discourse in this country ever since. People like Rush Limbaugh on

talk radio and now Tucker Carlson on Fox news have popularized a culture of hate.

“For many, many years we operated under a Fairness Doctrine in this country, and I think the country was well-served. I think the public discussion was at a higher level and more intelligent in those days than it has become since.”

—Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), 2008 And perhaps what couldn’t have been imagined is the rise of the internet age, making this lack of regulation more detrimental than ever. When new mediums emerge, there is an implicit expectation that they maintain integrity, but there is no longer any way of enforcing that integrity.

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The Fox is Guarding the Henhouse When left to its own devices, American media is profit driven to the exclusion of all other considerations. A series of interviews with Facebook executives, employees, and whistleblowers was able to demonstrate the myriad task forces, forums, and ethics committees created by Mark Zuckerberg whose findings were subsequently ignored.

For example, in 2016, Facebook company researcher Monica Lee found that 64% of all extremist group joins on their platform were due to their own recommendation tools, which utilized algorithms proven to drive user engagement. Even with this finding, nothing changed. In 2017, a task force found a strong correlation between maximizing user engagement and political polarization; nothing was done. Later, correlations between maximizing user engagement with depression and outrage were demonstrated; again, nothing changed.4 The reason that nothing was done in each of these instances (and many more) is that these same algorithms that resulted in such unhealthy behaviors also increased user engagement. In congressional hearings, Zuckerberg has repeatedly assured congresspeople that he has everything under control and needs no outside input. For the most part, at least until recently, the algorithmic underpinnings of such platforms were so poorly understood by lawmakers that Facebook and others were left to self-regulate. As understanding of these issues increases, though, we are obligated to demand changes.

not enough to leave it up to people to become more discerning, to vet “news” sources themselves, or to curb their media consumption when every algorithm is designed to drive their engagement at any cost. Leaving the fox to guard the henhouse might work if the fox is vegetarian… but outside of The Little Prince, I’ve never met a vegetarian fox.

The financial benefits that Facebook, Twitter, Google, and other online behemoths seek are misaligned with what benefits our society. It’s 17

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The Dumbing Down of America At a point in recent American history (think Reagan and then George W. Bush), we became enamored of the anti-intellectual. Suddenly, it was more important to many American voters that their president and other elected politicians be, above all, people with whom they could see themselves sitting down for a beer. The American people need many things from their leadership, but not beer drinking buddies. The reason we vote and have elected leadership is because we understand that as individuals we cannot possibly know and navigate all the complexities of policy affecting science, economics, education, environment, public health, etc. while also working and raising families and attempting to build a good life for ourselves. We need presidents and leaders who are, in fact, much smarter than we are, who are the very best and brightest among us, and who build committees and cabinets filled with experts to carefully, diligently, and without selfserving impulses, lead. The oaths taken by these individuals who together comprise our governments should put country before

party, the good of the whole above the advancement of the individual. technology that extracts data from our search histories or social media platforms and uses behavioral psychology to manipulate us into extreme and dangerous behaviors or beliefs must be reconsidered with safeguards put into place.7 Technology that gives a platform and a loudspeaker to hate or fearinducing untruths must be reined in. Likewise, technology that mines the earth or conducts acts of war should be revoked. Not only do these technological applications fail to abide by the “do no harm” mandate, but also, they operate entirely outside the boundary of disconnect, allowing us to effect changes at scales that we can no longer relate to, and increasingly without human oversight.

Facebook’s early internal motto was “move fast and break things.” Zuckerberg believed if you are not pushing the outer edges of a system’s capacity, you are not pushing far enough. If you are not wreaking havoc, you are being too delicate. With current circumstances as they are, this is exactly the opposite approach we should be taking to the development of new technologies in the age of the Anthropocene. What about, “move slow and pause to consider”? Or “take good care”? We humans have a hard time keeping the lid on Pandora’s Box clamped tightly. Therefore, we should be far more discerning with how we fill it.

Photo/Jonathan Hillyer

A 24-hour engine of Fox News, Talk Radio and social media has sucked the brain cells of so many and replaced it with fear, hate and division.

There are almost no moderate republicans left in leadership positions as a result.

The string of anti-intellectual Republican leadership that has become the new norm over the last couple decades, pushed through the elections process to positions of power by gerrymandering, voter suppression and misinformation campaigns, are certainly conniving even if not brilliant.

They have, in essence, fought to increasingly dim the intellect of the public, leaving them misinformed, outraged, scared, angry, and armed.

Truth has been discredited to such an extent that many can no longer decipher up from down, leaving their constituency susceptible to black and white arguments that result in a large swath of the population voting against their own best interests. This contingency relies on an ignorant population to be effective, which is why they siphon support from public education and play to the basest of instincts like fear, which is incredibly adept at bypassing logic and reasoning.

shameful. A 24-hour engine of Fox News, Talk Radio and social media has sucked the brain cells of so many and replaced it with fear, hate and division. There are almost no moderate republicans left in leadership positions as a result.

Their playbook looks something like:

Republican leadership has seen the writing on the wall and yet, rather than change and evolve to build new, healthier alliances to be more inclusive, they have chosen to double down and transform their base to be increasingly unhinged, ignorant and

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In contemporary Republican ideology, up is down and down is up. When this kind of topsy-turvy politics is combined with complete lack of regulation on its means of propagation a literal recipe for disaster is cooked up. This noxious combination explains why the debate around climate change—a verified and deadly phenomenon with unprecedented global scientific consensus that demands urgent and comprehensive action—is not centered on differing opinions on policy for how to address it, but rather on whether or not it’s even real. It explains why COVID-19 has been so deadly in this country when compared with the rest of the world, why rampant suspicion exists around life-saving vaccines, and why wearing a mask has become a political statement rather than a common-sense safety measure like 20

wearing a seatbelt. It explains why outrageous conspiracies, such as those propagated by Qanon, or those defaming Dominion Voting, Actual gerrymandered districts.

have been able to gain traction and effectively mobilize a fringe contingent to threaten democracy despite being otherwise laughable.

Proposed Guardrails By contrast, what happens when we prioritize public education, distributed fairly and equally across the country? What happens when people learn and become fluent not only in sound science, but also the scientific process, wherein standards are set and rigorously upheld, truths are held objectively, while constantly tested, verified, and validated by those who truly understand the subject matter? What happens when we learn, among other reasoning skills, that of discernment? Education engenders a world that is gray and trusts a population, fed exclusively on truth (and duly, clearly warned when being lied to), to make the best decisions available to them at the ballot box.

This is most certainly not a call to inhibit freedom of speech. In fact, we need demonstrations of civil conversation and disagreement among and between political groups in order to create the educated public necessary for democracy to thrive.

That requires each has a right to express contrary opinions. But the truth to which we tend to hew when

we’re talking with someone who fundamentally disagrees with us begins to slide when we only talk to those who agree. And if the conversations cease to exist entirely, and instead we ingest “news” in which political leaders speak directly to their constituents without being held accountable to the truth, we open the door for the spreading of lies; as we’ve seen, there are any number of unregulated media platforms more than eager to help those lies reach far and wide if user engagement improves as a result.

I believe it is therefore incumbent on us to clearly set benchmarks for truth around any information disseminated as news. We must stop placing the burden of proof on the general public. This ultimately leaves democracy hanging in the balance, relying on ability of deliberately lied to populations to navigate truth for themselves while the unscrupulous profit from the peddling of misinformation to them.

Similarly, all information outlets across all mediums should be regularly reviewed and scrutinized by nonpartisan positions akin to the FCC

or Surgeon General on the nature of their content with much greater reach than currently. Outlets claiming to disseminate news will be required to demonstrate the veracity of their reporting. Should one fail to receive a passing grade—and the determining rubric should likewise be public knowledge—it will be accompanied by a notice the equivalent of a surgeon general’s warning. This notice will share the grade the outlet has received, a brief, codified reason why, and a resource for more information. If an outlet routinely fails to qualify as news based on this rubric, it will clearly be labeled as habitually unfactual and be relabeled more accurately as opinionbased entertainment.

Medium-specific corrections would also be appropriate. For instance, in print journalism a written retraction may be required to right a piece of previously published misinformation; online platforms may require both a redaction and an annotated edit to the original piece explaining the change; television news coverage may require an on-air correction of misinformation.

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With only a few exceptions - I don’t believe speech should ever be curtailed or diminished as a cornerstone of a functioning, healthy democracy. Everyone should have a right to think and speak about what they want as private citizens but that should not protect us from knowingly spreading misinformation and falsehoods for private or political gain.

Societally, we have already agreed upon certain types of speech that are unjustifiably harmful, slanderous or damaging to others freedoms as being unacceptable. New guardrails now need to be put in place to reflect the rapidly changing ways that people consume information and the extreme power and therefore responsibility that online technologies and social media now have.

We must recognize that it is no longer just traditional media that provides information to the masses – the rules have changed and so to must the ways in which we safeguard public health and well being from constant exposure to information that is very often not in our best interests.

Our hyperconnectivity to targeted information designed to mislead can lead to mass radicalization in a very short amount of time which as recent events show, can be dangerous to democracy itself.

We must find a way for our regulatory will to catch up and remain apace if we are to make progress toward realizing a just world. We need to be explicit that whatever moral and legal loopholes remain open in regulation must be sought out and carefully closed, so that people are presented with scientifically credible and defendable information that affect their lives.

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We must hold forward a vision of a future where our tools of communication truly serve us as a whole.

How good could society get if we had a literate people who were well educated and understood the nuances of AI and the science of vaccines, reproductive health, and climate change, and who used social media platforms (held accountable for the algorithms by which they succeed) to connect with each other and spread truth and knowledge? What if we had nearly 100% voter turnout and the majority of voters voted in alignment with their interests, their children’s interests, and their future’s interest?

There’s nothing more dangerous to corporate abuses than a woke public. This is the entirety of why adopting guardrails around media is so strenuously resisted, however the attempt might be made to divert our attention by yelling about First Amendment rights or rolling out the Boogey-Man of Socialism and Communism. With the proliferation of news sources, we need to be more on it with these guardrails and regulations, not less. American democracy depends on it.

JASON F. McLENNAN is a highly sought out designer, consultant and thought leader. Prior to founding McLennan Design, Jason authored the Living Building Challenge – the most stringent and progressive green building program in existence, and founded the International Living Future Institute. He is the author of seven books on Sustainability and Design including the Philosophy of Sustainable Design, “the bible for green building.”

The Republican party has not won the popular vote since the 2004 election, though it’s interesting to note that the 2000 election—the results of which made George W. Bush the 43rd president of the US—was popularly won by the Democratic party. Source: https://www.statista.com/ statistics/1035521/popular-votes-republican-democratic-parties-since-1828/ 1

In 1934 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was established and in 1949 the FCC issued the Fairness Doctrine, a set of regulatory guidelines that required broadcast license holders use their stations to present balanced, truthful, and fair reporting on controversial issues deemed of public importance. This doctrine was in place until 1987, when it was abolished due to the plethora (which has since grown to infinite) of media outlets, which law makers felt no longer necessitated each outlet present balanced coverage, given that as a whole, the full spectrum and diversity of opinions would be adequately available.

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FCC Fairness Doctrine, Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCC_fairness_doctrine

Karen Hao. “How Facebook got addicted to spreading misinformation.” MIT Technology Review, March 11, 2021. https://www.technologyreview. com/2021/03/11/1020600/facebook-responsible-ai-misinformation/ 4

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HMTX World Headquarters is Designed to Celebrate Nature and Art

HMTX World Headquarte 24

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The House up on The Hill Floating delicately on top of an exposed rock ledge sits the new 23,000 sq ft world headquarters for HMTX Industries – a company that prides itself on sustainability, innovation, and teamwork. Committed to investing in a restorative ecosystem, HMTX wanted a building that would reflect its values with an uncompromising dedication to regenerative design. The building expands upon the HMTX campus with a focus on art, technology, and industry leading solutions to flooring design – all while pursuing the most stringent green building rating system on the planet, the Living Building Challenge (LBC).

Visitors arriving at the heavily wooded site are greeted by over 1.5 acres of ecologically restorative landscaping and the migratory fauna that frequent the region such as deer, fox, and bobcat. Direct biophilic experiences and connections to the natural world were critical to the project, and at every opportunity the building invites its guests to contemplate and be inspired by the beauty of the natural world. This begins with an entrance plaza that sets the tone of the building, welcoming occupants with the sound of falling water from a feature fountain wall, 60 year old shade trees, and a 35 foot mural composed by a local artist.

“This is not a building meant to disrupt nature, but rather, one that will actively preserve and promote it.”

HMTX CEO, Harlan Stone

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Designed to touch the ground lightly, nearly the entire structure floats above the granitic rock outcroppings on slender columns, allowing the new building to minimize site excavations, maintain wildlife corridors, and preserve as much of the existing landscape as possible. The geometry of this “tree house on the rock” is

elegant and simple, comprised of two rectangular volumes linked by an elongated corridor and sky bridge. This massing creates a central courtyard between the two volumes that provides daylight and views to every room in the building. Two compelling stair towers featuring natural wood materials anchor each

end of the project, encouraging visitors upward with expansive views out to the surrounding landscape.

Numerous footpaths, trails, and an ADA-accessible wooden boardwalk meander throughout the forested site, providing further opportunities for engaging with nature.

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A Center for Art + Innovation Inside, visitors are greeted at each floor by the elongated “gallerycorridors” that offer naturally daylit connections to all major spaces of the building while also serving as exhibit spaces for sculpture and artwork collections. Thickened wood thresholds transport visitors from these expansive corridors into each of the various other rooms.

A cutting-edge research and development space provides a place for the HMTX team to explore new products and technologies, complete with fully tunable lighting, 3D printers, and flexible prototyping stations.

A generous dining commons and outdoor deck provide employees a comfortable space to create meals together and work informally.

Conference rooms, open work areas, and private offices upstairs offer a 28

wide variety of working environments for collaboration. The topmost floor hosts artist-in-residence studios for long term design efforts, ringed around the central space of the building experience – the archive.

A stunning two-story space featuring custom casework and a sinuous spiral stair, the archive is the creative heart of the project.

Filled with a diverse collection of artwork, artifacts, and furniture, this expansive space provides a place for creative inspiration, as well as a large gathering space for social events.

Bringing the interior experience full circle, a rooftop garden and patio link visitors back to views of the everpresent landscape, sheltered by a PV canopy above that helps provide 100% of the building’s energy.

“This facility will be groundbreaking, not only for its design, but for the pioneering product development work taking place inside.”

Jason F. McLennan

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Sustainable Strategies The HMTX World Headquarters is not only an art and innovation center, but also an example of truly holistic regenerative design that incorporates a wide array of sustainable strategies and technologies. The project will set a new paradigm for sustainability in the region and is on track to become the first to achieve LBC Petal Certification in the state of Connecticut.

Pursuing passive design strategies was the first step in reducing the building’s energy demand. Proper solar orientation, natural daylighting, external sun shading, natural ventilation, and an ultra-efficient building envelope allow the building to operate comfortably with very minimal mechanical intervention. The remaining energy needed for the building is supplied by Photovoltaic panels on the roof that generate more energy on-site than the building uses. Through these passive and active systems, the building will achieve net-positive energy. Furthermore, all the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems operate entirely on electricity to ensure that zero carbon emissions will be produced throughout operation of the building., The embodied carbon of the building materials was also carefully considered throughout the project.

Low impact insulation, low carbon concrete, and an efficient structural design all drastically reduced the total embodied carbon emissions of the structure. The remaining embodied carbon impacts will be offset through a third party verified nature-based offset program.

HMTX as a company is deeply committed to transparency and sustainability in their products.

As such, the material selections for their headquarters were of critical importance. The design team met this challenge by pursuing the Materials petal of the LBC rating system. Every single material in the project meets Red-List Free requirements, meaning only the healthiest non-

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toxic materials available were used. This not only ensures the highest level of air quality for the building occupants but also encourages manufacturers far and wide to remove toxic chemicals in their materials and catalyze positive change in the entire architectural product market.

Reducing both indoor water demand and outdoor stormwater runoff was critical for the project. Ultra-lowflow fixtures were utilized to reduce upfront demand and a rainwater harvest system collects water on-site to use

for flush fixtures and other grey water uses. To prevent stormwater runoff, the natural drainage patterns of the site were retained to the highest degree possible. Raingardens in the surrounding landscape also help capture, retain, and filter stormwater before it leaves the site.

Biophilic elements that connect occupants to nature are distributed throughout the building, including natural and salvaged materials, a living green wall, and a diverse

selection of daylighting strategies. The site landscaping includes 15,000 sq ft of urban agriculture with both native and edible plants. These interventions all contribute to a holistic biophilic design that supports occupant comfort, focus, productivity, and mental and physical wellbeing for all.

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SUMMER 2021

Left to Right: Harlan Stone, CEO, HMTX Industries; Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling; Jason F. McLennan, CEO, McLennan Design; Michael Kaminsky, COO, HMTX Industries; Frank Cory, Sr VP, People’s United Bank CT; John Bundschuh, President, People’s United Bank CT; Dr. John Murphy, President & CEO, Nuvance Health; Robert Cavello, Project Manager, Westview Group; Keith Simpson, President, Keith Simpson and Associates.

Construction HMTX Industries held a “tree raising” event to commemorate the beginning of construction on its new world headquarters on May 25, 2021. A giant Yellowwood tree – native to the area centuries ago before glaciers disrupted the soil – was hoisted and lowered into place on the grounds of what will be a tree-studded green building, dubbed “The House up on The Hill”.

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Among the items given to guests at the tree raising were White Oak seedlings for each to plant - a native tree of Connecticut also known as ‘The Charter Oak’ and the state’s official tree.

Construction has continued apace for the new building, with the beginning of steel erection commencing at the end of June. The project is slated for completion in June of 2022.

“This project perfectly aligns the values of both HMTX and McLennan Design.

It will be a world class facility and an inspiration for generations to come.”

Brad Benke, McLennan Design

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ELEVATE

SUMMER 2021

From Blossoms

BY LI-YOUNG LEE

From blossoms comes

O, to take what we love inside,

this brown paper bag of peaches

to carry within us an orchard, to eat

we bought from the boy

not only the skin, but the shade,

at the bend in the road where we turned toward

not only the sugar, but the days, to hold

signs painted Peaches.

the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into

From laden boughs, from hands, from sweet fellowship in the bins, comes nectar at the roadside, succulent peaches we devour, dusty skin and all, comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.

the round jubilance of peach.

There are days we live as if death were nowhere in the background; from joy to joy to joy, from wing to wing, from blossom to blossom to impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.

Li-Young Lee, “From Blossoms” from Rose. Copyright © 1986 by Li-Young Lee. Source: Rose (BOA Editions Ltd., 1986) 34

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SUMMER 2021

Jason F. McLennan’s new online marketplace Living Deep - is committed to the highest standards of sustainability, transparency, and quality.

“We look for products that provide ingredient, sourcing and manufacturing transparency,” McLennan states. “While there’s no universal standard for sustainable manufacturing, we feel good knowing that every brand we carry is on a ‘deep green’ path, making progress towards positive environmental and social benefit.”

Founded by our own Jason F. McLennan and social entrepreneur Scott James, Living Deep is an online marketplace of ecologically and socially responsible home and lifestyle products, curated by design professionals and vetted by world-class sustainability experts for quality, beauty and environmental performance.

Living Deep’s visually rich and compelling portfolio aims to connect environmentally progressive craftspeople, manufacturers, artists and product designers with a discerning clientele who intentionally choose to buy fewer, better things.

The eclectic curation of furniture, decor, products and materials feature one-of-a-kind handicrafts alongside mass produced items, the common denominator being a verifiable commitment to sustainability and transparency.

Living Deep’s global network of partnering vendors has been handpicked by McLennan and a small core team of knowledgeable green design leaders.

While customers will enjoy browsing an expertly vetted offering of sustainably produced goods, commerce is not the only intention of the Living Deep marketplace. With a penchant for pushing the environmental envelope, McLennan and his team are guided by three unconventional values.

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Buy Less Stuff The antidote to excess, Living Deep encourages a more resourceful approach to sustainabil-ity. The reduce, reuse, recycle loop still leads to depleted resources. Living Deep urges its customers to consume less, because the easiest way to reduce waste is to stop creating it.

Invest for Life When making a purchase, buy things worth keeping. Invest in ethically and expertly made products that are gentle on the earth, beautiful to behold and designed to last.

Be the Change By consuming less and investing more in sustainably made, high quality items that are designed to last, we redirect our dollar to support systematic change. Living Deep supports the companies who support the environment and encourage its customers to do the same.

Built for Life.

QUALITY. BEAUTY. ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE.

livingdeep.com 37

MCLENNAN DESIGN IS2021 PROUD TO SUPPORT OUR NEW NATIONAL HOLIDAY! SUMMER

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ABOUT MCLENNAN DESIGN McLennan Design, one of the world’s leading multi-disciplinary regenerative design practices, focuses on deep green outcomes in the fields of architecture, planning, consulting, and product design. The firm uses an ecological perspective to drive design creativity and innovation, reimagining and redesigning for positive environmental and social impact.

Founded in 2013 by global sustainability leader and green design pioneer Jason F. McLennan and joined by partner Dale Duncan, the firm dedicates its practice to the creation of living buildings, net-zero, and regenerative projects all over the world. As the founder and creator of many of the building industry’s leading programs including the Living Building Challenge and its related programs, McLennan and his design team bring substantial knowledge and unmatched expertise to the A/E industry. The firm’s diverse and interdisciplinary set of services makes for a culture of holistic solutions and big picture thinking.

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ABOUT JASON F. MCLENNAN Considered one of the world’s most influential individuals in the field of architecture and green building movement today, Jason is a highly sought out designer, consultant and thought leader.

The recipient of the prestigious Buckminster Fuller Prize, the planet’s top prize for socially responsible design, he has been called the Steve Jobs of the green building industry, and a World Changer by GreenBiz magazine. In 2016, Jason was selected as the Award of Excellence winner for Engineering News Recordone of the only individuals in the architecture profession to have won the award in its 52-year history.

McLennan is the creator of the Living Building Challenge – the most stringent and progressive green building program in existence, as well as a primary author of the WELL Building Standard. He is the author of seven books on Sustainability and Design used by thousands of practitioners each year, including The Philosophy of Sustainable Design. McLennan is both an Ashoka Fellow and Senior Fellow of the Design Future’s Council.

He has been selected by Yes! Magazine as one of 15 People Shaping the World and works closely with world leaders, Fortune 500 companies, leading NGOs, major universities, celebrities and development companies – all in the pursuit of a world that is socially just, culturally rich and ecologically restorative. He serves as the Chairman of the International Living Future Institute and is the CEO of McLennan Design – his architectural and planning practice designing some of the world’s most advanced green buildings. McLennan’s work has been published in dozens of journals, magazines and newspapers around the world.

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