Katherine Grove a featured speaker at EcoBuild

Katherine Grove, a director at William McDonough + Partners, spoke on December 7 at Ecobuild in Washington DC on the topic of “Cradle to Cradle as a Framework for Design.” Joining her at the podium was Richard Maimon of Kieran Timberlake. They spoke about Make It Right, the Lower 9th Ward redevelopment effort in New Orleans, in which William McDonough + Partners is a core partner and pro bono contributor.

Both firms have designed homes for the Make It Right project and Cradle to Cradle has been used as a framework for the entire effort and all firms engaged there.

Make It Right pro bono effort to rebuild a community of safe and healthy homes emphasizing affordability, high-quality design and sustainable construction. Eighty LEED Platinum homes have been built making the neighborhood a living laboratory of construction and material processes.

This presentation focused on how the collaborative approach of the MIR interdisciplinary team has achieved efficiencies that lower the cost of building eco-friendly homes by managing the economics of the home designs, the costs of materials and labor, the education of staff and labor on site, contractor profit margins, insurance, legal and governmental fees, staff education and the speed of construction.