xxvi Introduction

and other organizations for more than a decade. Committee member Dan
Williams says that the Energy Committee formed two main groups: the
first researched principally passive systems, such as reflective roofing materi-
als and environmentally beneficial siting of buildings to achieve its goal of
energy savings, while the second group primarily concentrated on solu-
tions employing new technologies such as the use of triple-glazed windows.
This was later transformed into a more broadly scaled AIA Committee
on the Environment (COTE) in 1989, and the following year, the AIA
(through COTE) and the AIA Scientific Advisory Committee on the
Environment, managed to obtain funding from the recently created EPA
which was formed in the wake of elevated concern about environmental
pollution. The EPA was established on December 2, 1970 to consolidate in
one agency a variety of federal research, monitoring, standard-setting, and
enforcement activities to ensure protection of the environment. Its mission
included the development of a building products guide based on life cycle
analysis and which was published in 1992. As the energy concerns began
to subside in the years that followed, partially due to lower energy prices,
the momentum for green building and energy-related issues, in general,
also gradually weakened but not stamped out due to the dedication of a
core group of pioneering architects and professionals who continued to
advance their green building energy conservation concept forward. Several
notable buildings were constructed during the 1970s which utilized green
design concepts such as the Gregory Bateson Building in California (used
energy-sensitive PV—solar cells, underfloor rockstore cooling systems, and
area climate control devices) and the Willis Faber and Dumas Headquarters
in England (utilized a grass roof, daylighted atrium, and mirrored windows).
Numerous oil spills were witnessed during the 1980s such as the Exxon
Valdez in 1989, among others, and while the industry presented signifi-
cant opposition against environmental criticisms, the various energy-related
Acts continue to remain in force. We also witness during the 1980s and
early 1990s global conservation efforts by sustainability proponents such as
Robert Berkebile (Note: a structural failure at the Hyatt Regency Skywalks
hotel in Kansas City, which his firm designed caused the deaths of 114
people),William McDonough (Ford Motor Company’s River Rouge Plant
in Michigan, USA), Sim Van der Ryn (the Gregory Bateson Building in
Sacramento, California), and Sandra Mendler (World Resources Institute
Headquarters Office, Washington, D.C.) in the United States; Thomas
Herzog of Germany (Design Center in Linz, Austria); British architects
Norman Foster (Commerzbank Headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany),