Being Bob Berkebile

Bob Berkebile, founder of Kansas City, Mo., architecture firm BNIM, has helped pioneer the sustainable design movement over the past 30 years. As the founding chairman of the American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment and a board member of the U.S. Green Building Council, Berkebile helped introduce the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standard. His current work challenges and redefines the scope of sustainable design by restoring the environmental, economic and social vitality of communities. His efforts to go beyond design standards for resource efficiency at the building and community scales have made him a leader in sustainable design. Berkebile spoke with Sustainable Industries about the pitfalls of technology and going “more beyond”.

SI: How did you get started in architecture?

BB: I was lucky to have Buckminster Fuller as an instructor. I took a course on tensegrity structures, which use posts and cables to achieve efficient lightweight spans. We tried to build a prototype tensegrity dome, but it collapsed in the wind. We felt totally defeated. Bucky took us aside and told us that we had reached a miraculous breakthrough, and that significant advancements are only made through failure. At the time, he was thinking about building a tensegrity dome over Tokyo, and he told us that if that dome had failed he might have killed tens of thousands of people.

SI: You were involved in designing the Kansas City Hyatt Regency, which partially collapsed during a party and killed over 100 people in 1981. How did that affect you?

BB: Well, if Bucky was influential, this was a major life change. After helping with the rescue efforts, I re-read some of Bucky’s articles. Before the collapse, I thought he focused on efficiency and conservation. Afterwards, I saw that he had a greater concept of integrity. He said that if the answer doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t, and you need to dig deeper to the underlying issues. That was really my turning point.

After the tragedy, your first question is “Did I kill all these people?” This led to the larger question: “What is the impact of our designs on the people of this Earth?” Either we are helping people live better, to develop better communities while being stewards of the environment, or we’re not. This led to research on environmental design, which led to the National Committee on the Environment, which led to the U.S. Green Building Council, which led to the LEED system for evaluating green designs.

SI: BNIM has an ongoing research project called Plus Ultra. How does this research inform your work?

BB: In the early 90s, we were designing a green building research lab in Montana. At the time, I read the journals of Lewis and Clark, who had been through the area two centuries before. As I was reading their description of the same valley, I realized that what they saw had totally changed; the change over only 200 years really startled me. About the same time, someone gave me a ceramic tile engraved with the Latin phrase plus ultra, meaning “more beyond”. I connected these two events and said to the client that we have to go more beyond. Beyond measuring energy, we have to start measuring changes in biodiversity, human health and productivity, and changes in the economy of this place before we can really design. We were evaluating designs in a way that eventually became LEED.

SI: Tell us about your current work.

BB: We are trying to make every design decision reinforce the environmental, economic and social vitality of a place. We’re trying to avoid the lure of technology. It’s important to use technology to our advantage but also recognize that greater efficiency may unexpectedly lead to more consumption. I can get more efficiency in my next building using triple-glazed argon-filled windows, a ground source heat pump and a sophisticated photovoltaic system. But first, I have done huge damage upstream because of the industrial processes required to create that technology. Second, if energy costs continue to climb dramatically, and the system of creating neoprene window gaskets and fabricating the microchips collapses because of shifts in cost, the approach may not be sustainable at all. We’re using all-natural, low-tech systems as much as possible.

SI: What’s the toughest part of green design?

BB: Overcoming inertia. Usually clients understand green design. But we still have to confront local building officials, power companies and water treatment officials. We are trying to use biological wastewater treatment instead of the sewer system, and it’s not easy. Sometimes the inertia is in me. So that comes back to Plus Ultra — continuing to seek integrity. I have to remember to not always accept the obvious answer, to keep digging.