Designs celebrating the joy and creativity of the human spirit and the abundance of nature

Executing a diverse array of projects around the world from studios in Charlottesville, Virginia, and San Francisco, California, William McDonough + Partners (WM+P) is a 46-person firm of architects, planners, and leaders in sustainable design. We practice a positive, principled design approach that draws inspiration from living systems and processes, and all of our designs integrate environmentally intelligent design strategies. At its heart, this unique approach celebrates the abundance of nature: daylight, fresh air, diversity, life, and creativity.

William McDonough, the firm's founding partner, has played a prime role in defining sustainable design through his designs, writings, and speeches for more than two decades. Putting such concepts into practice, we have created pioneering architecture and community designs that consider the long-term and broad-scale consequences of design. Among the great diversity of projects completed by the firm, several are recognized as landmarks of the sustainability movement: the Environmental Defense Fund National Headquarters (1985); the Herman Miller “GreenHouse” Factory and Offices (1995); 901 Cherry, Offices for Gap Inc. (1997); the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies (2000) at Oberlin College; and the revitalization of historic Ford Rouge Center.

Cradle to Cradle Design Philosophy

Cradle to Cradle design is inspired by the astonishing effectiveness of natural systems. Rather than mitigate the environmental damage caused by the “cradle-to-grave” patterns we have inherited, Cradle to Cradle design is a new paradigm for human activity in a sustaining relationship with the natural world.

In the natural world, the sun's abundant energy perpetually generates new growth and is transformed by photosynthesis into food for living systems. Within each system, the waste of one organism provides nourishment for another -- waste equals food. The earth's water, too, flows in perpetually renewing cycles. All the processes that animate living systems are effective, cyclical, synergetic and regenerative.

We see design as the first signal of human intention. By emulating natural systems and applying the Cradle to Cradle principles of ecology to design, we seek an architecture that is regenerative. We envision buildings that purify air and water, and produce more energy than they require. Design can eliminate the concept of waste, producing perpetual assets rather than perpetual liabilities. Design can be synergetic: creating buildings that are socially, economically and ecologically advanced. By encouraging patterns of human activity that are regenerative by design, this approach aspires to be 100% positive, while working with today's technologies and building products toward that end. Cradle to Cradle design is fundamentally a redefinition of what constitutes good design.